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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



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A GLIMPSE OF THE 

ISLES OF THE PACIFIC 



WY m WHEELER 
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COPYRIGHTED 






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TlIBRARY of CONGRESS 
I OneOopv Keoelved 
I UtU 23 1907 

0LA88/4 AXQi N». 



TO MR. JOSHUA MOTTER, 

MY FRIEXD AND LIFE-LONG PARTNER, 

WHO STAYED AT HOME ATTENDING 

TO BUSINESS THUS ' 

MAKING IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO MAKE 

THIS VOYAGE, THIS BOOK 

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This book, as the title indicates, is a brief sketch of some things we 
saw on a short trip through Hawaiian Islands, Samoan Islands, New Zealand, 
Tasmania, Australia, The PliilippineSi China and Japan. 

I have many friends who are fond of travel; but circumstances make 
it inconvenient for them to leave home for a long sea voyage. One told 
me after reading my sketches of a cruise around the Mediterranean entitled 
"Three Months in Foreign Lands," that he had "enjoyed the trip fully as 
much as I, much more comfortably, and at less expense." It is for such 
friends as well as all others who enjoy reading Foreign Travels, that I have 
written this memoranda of what we saw on a voyage on the Pacific Ocean, 
the greatest body of water on earth, with thousands of islands inhabited by 
every race of humanity now living. These sketches are neither history 
nor fiction and I beg }^ou to excuse and overlook all errors as I am not an 
author or professional writer, but simply a wholesale dry goods merchant 
out for health and recreation, and made notes as I traveled along of such 
things as I saw from day to day. There are so many things different from 
what we see in our own favored land, that I trust you will be interested in 
reading the book. Many things can be more satisfactorily shown by photo- 
graphs than by any other means; having this in mind, I took a kodak with 
me continually, and made snap shots of such views as to me were inter- 
esting, scenic or beautiful, also some photos were purchased at different 
places. 

If you are interested in travel, in seeing different countries, their people 
and customs, come with me and I will tell you as well as I can, a little of 
what we saw on a four months cruise around the Pacific . 

Why did you go to New Zealand and Australia? asked one of my 
friends. One reason is, comparatively few travelers go there, and I wanted 
to see that part of the world where the grass was not beaten down in the 
path of the tourist. 

If it affords my friends half the pleasure to read this narrative that it 
gave me to make the trip, then my object in publishing this little book is 
accomplished. 

Yours sincerely, 

W. \V. Wheeler. 



A GLIMPSE OF THE 

ISLES OF THE PACIFIC 



When Cohimbiis left Spain to discover America, no 
doubt he knew as much about what he would find, as we 
did when we sailed out of the San Francisco Golden Gate, 
on our voyage around the great Pacific Ocean via New 
Zealand and Australia to China and Japan. On February 
7th, 1907, our party consisting of my wife, daughter and 
self, left Frisco, on board the S. S. Sierra, of Oceanic 
Steamship Company Line (sometimes called the Spreckles 
Line) (Captain H. C. Houdlette, commander), a ship of 
about 6000 tons, which is large for the Pacific Ocean trade, 
but would be called small for the Atlantic. We carried 
sixty-six first cabin passengers and thirty-six second cabin, 
besides a cargo of general merchandise. The crew consisted 
of two hundred and sixty-four officers and men — all 
Americans. 




ROYAI, PAI^M avenue;, H0N0I,UI.U. 



HONOLULU. 

After a fair voyage of six days, we landed at Honolulu, 
Hawaiian Islands, where, much to our regret, about half of 
the first-class passengers left us, among whom we had 
formed some very pleasant acquaintances. We went to the 
Hotel Young for the night and breakfast, then took a 
White Steamer Automobile to see the city. Much to our 
surprise, we found it quite up to date. They have a 
population of 43,000 made up of native Hawaiians, 
Americans, English, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and a 
few from nearly all other nations. 

There are several fine hotels here, the Capitol building, 
the Palace of Ex-Queen Liliuokalani. many blocks of store 
buildings, several hospitals, also many fine mansions 
surrounded by tropical gardens, being the homes of sugar 
planters. These fine places usually cover a full block or 
more, the lawns having a great variety of palms, banana 
trees, and all the most beautiful trees and flowers, which 
grow in a tropical climate, surrounded by hedges of 
Hibiscus, ten to fifteen feet high. This Hibiscus is a tiny 
and puny plant with us, which only grows with the 
tenderest nursing, but here it grows to be a small tree with 
great wealth of blossoms. 

They have fine streets, well paved, a good line of 
electric street cars, and are well supplied with public school 
buildings, not many churches, and these are Catholic, 
Congregational and Methodist, also a very good Y. M. C. A., 
and its membership is made up of Whites, Chinese, 
Japanese, Portuguese, and Negroes, who, they claim, all 
work together very well. 



The chief product of these Islands is sugar. They 
raise fourteen tons to the acre, In this cHmate the cane 
ripens at any season of the year the planter may desire, 
according to the time when it is planted, so that on a large 
plantation they have work all the year round in cutting and 
grinding sugar cane. Many very large fortunes have been 
made here in the sugar business. Mr. Clans Spreckles is 
one who has amassed millions; also Mr. Alexander Young, 
who still lives here, accumulated a large fortune in this 
business, and has built the finest hotel in Honolulu, costing- 
over a million and a half dollars, a fire-proof structure six 
stories high with a beautiful roof garden, and an elegant 
block of store buildings on first floor. This is a great 
winter resort for people from the United States who wish 
to avoid the winters at home, and it is certainly an ideal 
climate for a lazy man. The highest temperature during 
the year is 84 in July and the lowest is 58 in January, only 
26 degrees of variation during the year. 

We saw great fields of banana trees. These grow, 
under their plan of cultivation, about ten feet high, and each 
small tree bears one bunch of bananas. This tree is then 
cut down and another grown from its sprouts in ten months. 

We saw rice fields, and we ate the most delicious pine- 
apples. These do not grow on trees, but in a garden, like 
cabbage. They are planted in rows and grow close to the 
ground. All the trees here are evergreen, and almost any- 
thing can be planted at any season of the year, and comes 
to harvest in a short time. 

The native Hawaiians are averse to labor of any kind; 
in fact are (by themselves) considered above work. Nature 
has so favored them that very little labor is necessary to get 
plenty to eat, and the little that they need for clothing. 

II 




DATE PALMS, HONOI,UI,U. 



They are a kindly disposed, child-like, copper-colored race. 
They have a pleasant custom of placing garlands of flowers, 
called leis, around your neck and hat when you depart from 
them, always smiling when you say good-by, maybe because 
they are glad to see you go. At any rate as we were about 
to sail, our steamer friends, those who left the boat at that 
point, followed the custom of the Islanders, and covered us 
with wreaths and garlands of flowers when they came down 
to the dock to see us off. We said good-by with regret, 
as there will only be thirty first-class passengers now to 
Auckland, about one-fourth of the number the ship is 
prepared to carry, ^nd we shall miss our steamer friends 
very much, as it is a long voyage we now have before us. 

At sea February i8th. Were you ever adrift at sea, 
without power to direct or guide your boat? Last night, 
just as we were about to retire, the fusible safety plug blew 
out of one of our boilers, rendering the power of our ship 
helpless. The boat immediately swung around into the 
trough of the sea swells and began rolling very heavily, and 
drifting. We knew not whether they could repair the 
break in one day, or even whether they could, in fact, 
successfully repair it at all. We were almost exactly in the 
center of the great Pacific Ocean, about one thousand 
miles from the Samoan Islands, our nearest harbor. No 
ships ever come over this track except the three owned and 
run by the Oceanic Steamship Company, and the next one 
in these waters is the Ventura, due in about two weeks. 
If we should be still drifting, would she see us and pick us 
up? The chances are that we would be so far drifted out 
of our course that she would not see us. Fortunately, the 
sea was not very rough, but a great big swell was on, 
which nearly threw us out of our berths, as the ship rolled 

13 



from side to side. To add to our distress, the ship was 
badly Hsted to port, and had been for two days. The 
ofiticers never tell the passengers about what is the trouble 
in such a case, and, indeed, they had troubles enough of 
their own. With the ship rolling in such a manner and the 
temperature at 140 degrees in the engine room, their limit 
was almost reached, and then, to make their troubles still 
greater, at 1:30 in the morning the dynamo which makes 
all the lights for the ship balked, and every light in the ship 
went out, leaving them in total darkness. Of course, 
nothing could be done to the boilers until they had light, 
and the chief engineer then turned his attention to repairing 
the dynamo, with the aid of a tallow candle and a small 
hand lamp. He did his best and got the dynamo started 
at 4 a. m. Then he returned to the boiler trouble again. 
What if a storm should arise before they could again start 
the engine, and roll this big steamer clear over? And many 
times it seemed as if she would go over, but should we take 
to the small boats before she went over, how many of us 
would ever be able to reach land, even if the small boats 
could live in a heavy sea, which is not at all likely. One 
can imagine that very few of the passengers slept any that 
night. 

The next morning we had breakfast, the boat still 
drifting and rolling. We made an effort to try to be 
cheerful and say something to bring a smile and liven up 
the solemn appearance of our fellow passengers, but it was 
no go. There was not a smile to be had in that crowd. 
After TRYING to eat breakfast, we all adjourned to the 
promenade deck and were then greeted by the sight of more 
than a dozen big man-eating sharks, ugly looking brutes, as 
large as a horse, swimming around the boat. To see a 

15 



shark when your boat is in distress is not an omen of good 
luck, and you cannot make yourself think so, even if you try. 
It gave every passenger time for reflection. One suggested 
that he thought of all the sins of his past life. We thought, 
''Well this is surely seeking pleasure under dif^culties," and 
we wished we were safely home again in old St. Joseph. 
If we could only get home again, we would say, to use the 
familiar style, "Missouri is good enough for me." However, 
all troubles end sometime, and in this case fortune favored 
us, and after twelve hours of most assiduous labor, the 
engineer got things patched up so that she would run 
again at a slower rate of speed, and having fairly good 
weather, we made Pago Pago, on the Samoan Islands, two 
days late. The engineer said later that he never worked so 
hard in his life as he did to get the break repaired, as he 
knew the passengers would be in a panic if a blow should 
come up before the engines could handle the ship. 

SAMOAN ISLANDS. 

The best harbor in the Samoan Islands is Pago Pago, 
where we arrived on Washington's birthday and were 
greeted by the gunboat Adams with a salute of twenty-one 
guns in honor of the day, and it does look good to see Old 
Glory, "the emblem of the land we love," floating in this 
far-away seaport. This Island and harbor is the property 
of the United States, and we maintain here a gunboat with 
150 ofificers and men. The commanding officer is also 
Governor of the Island, which is twenty miles long, and 
about six miles wide. Fourteen degrees south of the 
Equator, it is always warm. The temperature ranges from 
65 to 90 degrees and is very humid. The population, aside 
from our Navy, is thirty whites, and six thousand native 

17 



Samoans, who are copper-colored and a fine, shapely lot of 
humanity. They are, indeed, larger and in better flesh than 
the average people of our own land, not war-like, but of a 
kindly disposition. They wear less clothing than any 
people we ever saw; in fact, the men only wear a breech 
clout and the women not much more. How Cjuickly one 
gets accustomed to such garb; it looks all right here for 
these people to dress in that way. 

The Island is covered with cocoa-nut, banana, bread- 
fruit and orange trees, all growing wild, without any 
cultivation. Their homes are usually thatched straw, 
simply to keep the rain out, and it rains there for sure. 
In the two days before we were there, it rained twenty 
inches, and 230 inches per year is their usual rain-fall. 
While we were there the sun was bright and hot. 

Their food is altogether the fruits of the trees, which 
they gather with almost no labor, and the fish, which are 
very plentiful and easily caught. This is all their living- 
expenses, except their clothing, which is very limited, as 
before mentioned, and to pay for this they cut the meat of 
the cocoa-nuts in strips and dry it in the sun. Then it is 
called COPRA and is sold, a large amount of it to our 
markets, where the oils are pressed out and used for making 
many of our best soaps. 

They are a happy and contented people, excellent divers 
and swimmers. The prices of railroad stocks, wheat and 
corn, do not trouble them in the least. 

This harbor is quite small, almost a circle about half a 
mile across, and very deep, supposed to be the crater of an 
old volcano, surrounded by mountains, about fifteen 
hundred feet high. Only a narrow strip of level land runs 
around this harbor, where the straggling town of Pago 

19 



Pago is built. The only house of much importance is the 
Governor's mansion, a large yellow frame on a high point 
to the south as we enter the harbor. Our Government 
maintains a coal supply here, which coal comes from 
England, America and Australia. There is really almost no 
commerce here, its only value to the United States being 
Coaling Station in time of war, and it seems that it is 
very doubtful if it is worth to us what it costs to maintain it. 

The London Mission Society established a mission 
here in 1835, ^^'^^^ nearly the whole native population have 
become Christians under their teaching. They have taught 
them to read and most of them to write, and have 
established schools in different parts of the Island. They 
have several books printed in their Samoan language, and 
three or four newspapers. One of them is a weekly, 
printed under direction and at the expense of our United 
States Government, and distributed free, intended to 
educate the people. About thirty years ago, the Catholics 
established a mission here, and later the Wesleyan 
Methodists and the Mormons. These last three have made 
some progress, but nine-tenths of the natives are still 
adherents of the first church — that is, the Congregational. 
It is an error for the last three Mission Societies to make 
an effort here, when the field is well supplied, and 
effectively, by the London missions. 

We went to church on Sunday, February 24th, and 
heard the Post Chaplain, Mr. Frazier, from Richmond, 
Virginia, preach a very good sermon. 

For much of this informatfon, we are indebted to 
United States Judge Gurr, who dispenses justice over the 
Island. He is a very pleasant gentleman, a native of 
Tasmania, Australia, has lived here twenty-four years, is 

21 



married to a native Samoan woman, and they have two 
interesting children, a daughter eleven years of age, and a 
son nine. The Judge invited the whole ship's passengers 
out to a picnic on his plantation, about three miles from 
the harbor. Our Captain accepted and took us all in one 
of the ship's boats, towed by a small gasoline launch. 
When we arrived at our landing place, the water for about 
two hundred yards was too shallow for the boats to come 
to shore. The ladies were carried ashore on the backs of 
native boatmen, and the men took off shoes and stockings, 
rolled up their trousers and waded ashore, where we were 
met by Judge Gurr, his wife, and three native girls, one of 
whom was the daughter of a Samoan Chief, and by her 
own right a reigning belle. They led the way through the 
plantation, which is thickly covered with sugar cane, 
cocoa-nut, banana and bread-fruit trees, and many other 
kinds of trees, among them being the cocoa bean 
tree, the first we have seen of this tree. The cocoa-beans 
grow in pods, which contain several beans. They have 
only been planted a few years, and are just beginning to 
bear fruit. These trees are about the size of a peach 
tree and have leaves eight or ten inches long, light green 
color. Our path led us along a clear bubbling mountain 
brook through a regular jungle of tropical vegetation. We 
were obliged to cross the brook half a dozen times on 
cobble stones, and most of us slipped off the stones and 
wet our white shoes, but the weather was so warm that 
there was no danger of taking cold. 

After a toilsome climb for about a mile in the terrible 
heat, we came to the picnic ground, situated at the foot of a 
beautiful little mountain waterfall, about thirty feet high. 
A good, strong current of water flows over this fall, and 

23 




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drops into a little pool some fifty feet in diameter, 
nearly round and quite deep. We were surrounded by the 
tropical forest and jungle, many large and small trees, also 
ferns growing in every possible place where they could 
catch hold. On nearly every tall tree, there would be a 
a bunch or more of these beautiful ferns. Wherever a limb 
was broken off or a knot hole appeared, a bunch of ferns 
would immediately begin to grow, appearing much like a 
large bird's nest located fifty feet above the earth. 

An awning was spread and under it was placed our 
lunch, which had been brought from the steamer. The 
whole company sat on the ground, the Captain at the head 
of the line, with Mrs. Judge Gurr at his side, and the native 
girls next. We were very tired after our long walk and 
enjoyed the lunch, washed down with plenty of ginger ale 
and clear, cool spring water. 

After lunch, the next thing in order was a swim in the 
pool. We were all invited to go in and swim, but our 
party declined. The Judge's wife, the three native girls 
and the little son of the Judge were soon in the water. 
They are great divers and swimmers, and did many antics 
in the water for our diversion. 

Next we tramped back to the beach, slipping into the 
brook several times on our way. The Judge took us to 
his plantation house and spread mats on the ground, for us 
to sit on, while waiting for our boats to come, and gave us 
a lesson in harvesting cocoa-nuts. One of his men walked 
up a cocoanut tree fifty feet, high, like a monkey. There 
were about five bushels of cocoanuts at the top of this tree; 
he knocked off many of them and prepared them for our 
refreshment. The shell of the cocoa-nut has a heavy 
covering, or husk, about two inches thick; to remove this. 



-^D 



the native sharpens a stick at both ends and drives it into 
the ground, then takes the cocoa-nut and strikes it on the 
sharp point of this stick, driving the stick through the 
outer shell or husk, and with three or four quick jerks 
removes it. Then the cocoanut is the same as it appears when 
it comes to our market. He then takes a long heavy knife 
and cuts out the end of the cocoa-nut, and hands it to his 
guest to drink. The milk, which is about a pint, is as clear 
" as spring water, a pleasant drink and quite refreshing. 

After returning to our steamer for dinner, some of our 
party went out for a moonlight boat ride, with natives to 
pull the boat. They sing their wierd native songs. The 
singing became monotonous, however, after they had sung 
the same verse over two hundred times, they are musical 

AND LIKE TO SING. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boss, of New York, have been sent here 
by astronomical societies to make a chart of the southern 
heavens. They have located their observatory on the top 
of a small mountain on the seashore near the entrance of 
the harbor. They live alone on this mountain crag, about 
two miles from the town, and kindl}^ invited our party to 
make them a visit, which was enjoyed very much. 

The natives have no opportunity to get intoxicating 
liquors of any kind, but they make a queer substitute, which 
they call cava, from a plant root which grows here. To 
prepare this for drink, the original plan was for the women 
to chew it up fine and spit it into a bowl, where it was allowed 
to stand in water for a time and ferment. The mixture was 
then strained to take the small root fibre out, and was then 
ready for drink. Some of our passengers who drank it, 
say the taste is rather flat, yet it has some of the effects of 



27 



alcoholic drink, not affecting the head so much as the legs; 
the women and children are not permitted to drink this 
concoction. 

Originally there were no animals, chickens or reptiles 
on this Island, and scarcely any birds. There are now as 
many pigs as the natives wish, a few chickens, and very few 
birds of any kind. There are no cattle except three or four 
cows, which belong to the Catholic Mission. There are 
fourteen saddle horses on the Island, and they are a sorry 
lot in appearance, as they get nothing to eat except grass, 
and the rainfall is so heavy that the grass is not very 
nutritious. There are no wheeled vehicles of any kind here, 
except bicycles. A few of these are used in the town, 
where they have a narrow road built about eight feet wide. 
While the walking is not good on account of dense under- 
growth, yet the only way to "get there" is to walk, when 
at Samoan Island. 

There are only three stores in the town. We visited 
all of them, and their combined stocks would not amount 
to more than two thousand dollars in value. In conversa- 
tion with one of the proprietors, he said business was fair 
and that there were other places worse than this for trade. 

He has been in business here for six years, and is an 
Englishman; his stock would be worth, at a fair estimate, 
two hundred and fifty dollars. 

As before stated, the natives have almost no use for 
goods of any kind, and they scarcely know the use of 
money; they are almost communistic in their ways. While 
they are not dishonest and will not steal, yet they will take 
and appropriate anything they see that they want. That is, 
if one of their number has anything that his neighbor 
wants, he simply takes it and the owner will not refuse 

29 




NATIVE NEW ZEALAND WARRIOR. 



him. There are several small villages scattered over the 
Island; if any of these villages get scarce of food, they 
all go in a body to the next village and stay with them as 
long as there is anything to be found there to eat, and the 
host makes no objection. 

We spent three days quite pleasantly in this far-away 
and queer country of Samoan Islands. The sun is intensely 
hot during the middle of the day, and one that is not 
accustomed to this heat should not venture out when the 
sun is high; he is liable to sunstroke. We did not suffer 
from heat at night. 

The Fiji Islands are located five hundred miles west of 
the Samoan Islands. We are told there are no cannibals 
there now, as they have been taught by the Missionaries, 
and many of them are now Christians, but they were 
originally cannibals. 

The Solomon Islands, which are near here, are 
populated with savage natives, and they still eat human 
flesh, not for a regular diet, but when in war they will kill 
and eat an enemy. 

We arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday, 
March 2nd, after a voyage of twenty-two days from Frisco, 
including the two stops. Omitting the unpleasant times 
mentioned heretofore, on account of defective machinery, 
the S. S. Sierra is one of the most pleasant boats we ever 
traveled upon. Captain Houdlette was most kind and 
obliging to the passengers, and Chief Engineer Mcintosh 
is a hero. He stood by his task, night and day; the 
passengers wrote him a letter, acknowledging their 
gratitude for his arduous services, and presented him with 
a watch charm at Auckland to commemorate the trip. 



31 




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NEW ZEALAND. 

The name is appropriate, in that the country is the 
NEWEST on the face of the earth today, having only been 
settled by the whites sixty-seven years. It is of volcanic 
origin, and in my opinion, came to the surface of the ocean 
centuries later than all the large continents of the earth. 
There are many things which lead me to this conclusion, 
one of which is that when first settled by the English, there 
was really no animal or bird or reptile life on these islands, 
and there is none to the present day, except those which 
have been imported from other countries, and no fresh 
water fish in its waters except importations. A friend once 
told me, "When you are traveling, go to New Zealand; it 
is the original 'Garden of Eden.'" I had always been of 
the belief that the original "Garden of Eden" was situated 
on the River Euphrates, in Asia; however, the very first 
trip we made after landing was to the top of "Mount 
Eden", a coincidence which might mean that others had 
been of the belief that this was the original "Garden of 
Eden." I do think, however, that it is the garden spot 
OF THE EARTH, TODAY, Considering its salubrious and even 
climate, its beautiful scenery, hill and dale, mountain, farm 
and grazing land, and the most accommodating and 
pleasant people to be met anywhere. 

We were delighted with the appearance of Auckland 
as we entered the bay, which is a fine large harbor, and 
deep, so that ships come alongside the wharf. This is a 
beautiful city of about 75,000 population. New Zealand is 
an English Colony, and nearly all the population are 
EngHsh, Scotch or their descendants, and a fine people they 

33 





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are. We did not see a drunken man, or hear any profane 
language while we were in New Zealand. We stopped at 
the Grand Hotel, on the top of a beautiful hill overlooking 
the bay; this hotel is small and has no elevators, but it is 
scrupulously neat and clean, and the table fare is good. 

We drove to the top of the highest mountain in this 
vicinity, an extinct volcano 500 feet high, with a crater 
about 100 feet deep. This mountain is situated almost in 
the middle of Auckland and a grand view is had from this 
point over the entire city and bay. We never saw so many 
beautiful small cottages, with fine landscape gardens 
surrounding them. These cottages are frame buildings, 
mostly one story, with porches on two or three sides, 
ornamented with much filigree and neatly painted, usually 
canar}' color with white trimmings. They are occupied by 
the laboring classes and are so far superior to the houses in 
our own cities, which are occupied by the laboring classes, 
that there is really no comparison. 

The city of Auckland is well situated for foreign trade, 
and does a large export and import business. It is well 
supplied with churches, schools and hospitals. A ferry boat 
line runs across the bay every half hour to a beautiful suburb 
called Davenport; distance across the bay one mile; fare, 
twelve cents round trip. 

The climate is semi-tropical; they raise some oranges 
and many palm trees. 

On March 5th, we went by rail to Rotorua, the hot 
springs district. The railroad runs through a fine farming 
country for the first one hundred miles, then seventy 
miles through the mountains. This road is a narrow 
gauge, three feet six inches, and has many sharp grades and 
curves. The mountain scenery is fine, and there is much 

35 



heavy timber along the line, which is being wasted by 
cutting and burning, simply to clear the ground for 
farming. There will be a time, not far in the future when 
these people will find they have made a great mistake in 
wasting their timber, as they will need it. 

Rotorua is a small town, one thousand population, 
built entirely for the tourist; the Government has expended 
about a million dollars here, in building hotels, parks, 
bathing houses, streets and roadways. The Grand is a fine 
first-class hotel, and many others are good. The park, or 
public garden, is the finest we saw in New Zealand, 
ornamented with beautiful trees, flowers, lakes, etc. Hot 
steaming springs, lakes, drives etc., also the public baths, 
owned by the Government, are very fine and noted for their 
medicinal qualities. They have two large swimming pools, 
one for men and one for women. The water is hot and 
impregnated with sulphur, said to be very beneficial for 
rheumatism and skin diseases. There are several beautiful 
lakes here, surrounded by mountains and well filled with 
fish. We took a small steam launch and went across Lake 
Rotorua about nine miles, when we saw a fine stream of 
water or river flowing from under the mountain; the volume 
of water is as wide as one of our streets and several feet 
deep. Next we went with our launch through a narrow 
river, or channel, to Lake Rotoiti, which is about eight 
miles long. The outlet of these two lakes forms a good sized 
river with many rapids and waterfalls; they have utilized a 
small part of the water to make electric lights and power 
for the city of Rotorua, which is eighteen miles distant. 
From there we took a four horse stage and drove to the 
Hot Springs of Tikiteri. There are no spouting geysers at 
this place, but there is about two hundred acres covered 

37 



with boiling lakes and mud volcanoes, all throwing off a 
great volume of steam and sulphur vapor. It has the 
appearance of being very near the infernal regions. 

Next, we drove half a mile to Blue Lake, the crater of 
an extinct volcano. This lake is almost circular, about 
half a mile across, very deep, fresh water, surrounded by 
mountains, and has no outlet; the color is a deep blue and 
is very pretty in contrast with the high walls of green 
surrounding it. 

Driving back to the city, we passed many small hot 
springs with clouds of vapor rising from them; immediately 
around Rotorua, not more than two miles from the city is 
an important geyser district with a great many boiling lakes 
and boiling mud baths. A part of this has been set apart 
for a government park and is free to the public, but the 
best part is the private property of the Maoris (or original 
people who inhabited the island before the white settlement); 
they have a village here of three or four hundred; they use 
some of these boiling springs for cooking their meals, and 
in others which are not too hot, they do their washing; 
they never have to buy wood or coal for fuel. 

We left Rotorua at eight o'clock in the morning with 
the prospects of a perfect day before us; the air was 
delightful, and the sun shone brightly. We had the box 
seats on a high drag, which carried twelve passengers. 
We drove ten miles, part of the time through the native 
"bush," which is very lovely, as there is an endless number 
of tree ferns all about; suddenly, through a break in the 
mountains, we came upon the loveliest bright blue lake 
imaginable; it was simply hemmed in with mountains. The 
peculiar color is attributed to the soil and the minerals in it. 



39 



[list an eighth of a mile from this is a green lake — quite as 
vivid green as one could imagine. 

At the end of the drive, we reached the buried Maori 
village of Wairoa, where eighty Maoris and several 
Englishmen were killed in the great eruption of June, 1886. 
Tarawera mountain was the center, but nine craters all 
erupted at the same time. In this village, they showed us 
the ruins of the school house and hotel where the English 
people were killed, also the little "whare" or cottage, where 
one of the chief's wives, "Sophia," sheltered sixty people. 
Sophia is still alive, although very old. and the Maoris all 
think a great deal of her. 

From Wairoa, we took a naphtha launch and went 
across Lake Tarawera. All the way the huge mountain of 
Tarawera frowned down upon us. At the side of this 
mountain, a huge piece blew^ out and fell into the lake 
during the eruption; this leaves a yawning hole, which gives 
the mountain a ferocious appearance. We walked about a 
quarter of a mile between Tarawera and Rotomahana, 
where we took another launch and went across this lake. 
Here are the sites of the famous pink and white terraces, 
which were destroyed by the great eruption; this is a pity, 
because they were very beautiful and quite the sights of 
New Zealand. The guide shows you where they were, and 
the hot water and the minerals which form them; there are 
numerous boiling springs all about this lake, and clouds of 
steam can be seen in almost every direction. We landed 
on hot ground and proceeded to walk up an old river bed, 
seeing, every few feet, little clouds of steam rising from the 
bank; anywhere along here one could poke a stick into the 
ground, which was quite soft, and steam would immediately 
come out. We walked about four miles and climbed two 

41 



big hills, saw more steam holes, and one called the "Frying 
Pan," where hot water was boiling and bubbling up over 
quite a large space of sand, and looked very like its name. 

At last, we reached the crater of the great geyser, 
Wiamungu, which, at the present time is not active. Up 
to a year and a half ago, it spouted to a height of from 200 
to 300 feet. The guide said it had ceased playing because 
the two lakes adjacent to it had lowered several feet, and, 
of course, we were not in a position to question that. 
About two or three months before it ceased playing, four 
people were killed because they stood too near and the 
boiling spray covered them. 

We reached the rest house overlooking Wiamungu, 
very tired and hungry, and were glad that our long walk 
was at an end. After lunch we drove to Wiatopu, six 
miles distant, where we spent the night. Here are some 
more geyser formations, one called the "Champagne Pool," 
which bubbles furiously all the time, another sulphur pool, 
which of course is a bright yellow, and several sulphur 
holes, where one sees bright sulphur unadulterated. In 
another place there are some very pretty alum cliffs, and in 
still another spot we were shown some tiny terraces forming. 
These are only twenty years old, as they have begun to 
form since the great eruption of Tarawera, when the big 
terraces were destroyed. Here one is shown the action of 
the water and minerals which form them; these little new 
terraces are hard white substance, something like silica, 
over which the water continually runs; in several centuries, 
they will probably be as large as the old ones which were 
destroyed. 

The next morning we left Wiatopu early and drove 
thirty miles through most uninteresting country to 

43 




< f < I 



,' 'f 



I i <-l 



V/j , 




Wairakei. which we reached in four hours. We had hinch 
at the cozy Httle hotel and started out immediately 
afterwards with a guide to view "Geyser Valley." We 
walked for a mile down a most picturesque path, lined with 
"bush" on either side, to the Valley. The first thing we 
saw was the Devil's Chaldron, which was a deep place, 
seething and boiling furiousl}^ The wonderful part, to us, 
in this Valley is the way the dainty little ferns and green 
moss grow quite dowai to the boiling water. They seem to 
thrive on the hot vapor, and to grow even more luxuriantly 
there than any spot we had seen. At all other places where 
there is any geyser activity, it is quite bare and arid looking, 
but in this Geyser Valley, the boiling springs are hidden 
from view by beautiful bush until one simply comes upon 
them unexpectedly. The effect is almost impossible to 
describe, but it is wonderfully picturesque. 

The first big geyser we saw spouting was the 
Wairakei. It plays every eleven minutes and was really 
exceedingly pretty, going up to a height of about forty 
feet the day we saw it, but often higher than that. Another 
exceedingly dainty geyser was the Prince of Wales' 
Feathers, which sprays up like three feathers; it is quite 
high up on a plateau of rock and makes an effective picture 
when it plays. At one spot we saw what was called the 
"Heron's Nest." This is a tiny bubbling pool which comes 
out of a deep round rock, quite salmon colored, and 
looking much like a nest. The rock is imbedded in 
beautiful ferns and moss, and the salmon color against the 
green is most attractive. Near here, we saw the "Twins," 
two small geysers which play punctually every four 
minutes and make a lot of fuss about it. The "Paddle- 



45 



Wheel" is most interesting because when it plays it sounds 
exactly like the paddle-wheel of a river steamboat. 

After leaving Geyser Valley, we drove to "Wairoa 
Valley" where the formations are similar to those mentioned 
heretofore, except that there are several hot water falls, 
which are salmon-colored and bright yellow; this is caused 
by the different minerals in the rocks. We saw "Porridge- 
Pots," also, where the white mud bubbles up continually in 
little sprays. In this valley, it is said, one can catch a trout 
in a clear, cold little stream, and turn around and drop the 
fish into a boiling spring on the other side and cook it. 
But the most attractive things to us in this valley were the 
colored pools of water. As we walked along we saw a 
bright yellow, then a blue, then a lavender, and lastly a 
deep claret-colored pool, which looks exactly like claret 
wine. These are colored by the minerals in the soil, so the 
guide says; but to us it was a most extraordinary thing. 
All through this valley, too, we came upon clumps of 
magenta-colored moss growing close to the hot water's 
edge; it seemed cjuite out of place among so much green. 

The next morning, bright and early, we drove back 
to Rotorua, forty miles away. We did half the drive in the 
morning, with a rest and lunch at Atiamuri, a pretty little 
spot on the banks of the Waikato River, and finished the 
drive in the afternoon. As far as Atiamuri, the trip was 
most interesting, as we went up and down the mountains 
most of the way, through pretty bush, but after lunch we 
went across dreary plains covered with "Manuku," or tall 
coarse grass which is "nevergreen" so we were exceedingly 
glad to reach Rotorua, a good dinner and a soft bed. 

On March nth, we took up our journe}- by rail to 
Taumaranui, the present end of the railroad, arriving there 

47 



after dark; we found lodging in a hotel that was very 
primitive, indeed. They used tallow candles for light, 
which is a novelt}' in these days; however, they gave us 
good meals and good, clean beds. 

Next morning, bright and early, we were off on our two 
days trip down the Wanganui River. This is the greatest 
scenery in the North Island and is called the "Rhine of New 
Zealand." When we embarked on the river, it was very 
small and shallow; our boats for the first ten miles were 
two canoes, one for the passengers and one for the luggage. 
They drew only six inches of water, yet they had some 
trouble in getting over the many shallow rapids. Once 
they put us off and made us walk around the rapids, as it 
was dangerous for us to go through; in fact, sometimes 
boats are turned over here and both passengers and 
luggage spilled in the water. We had many sharp turns to 
make, and our boats dragged on the bottom frequently; 
however, we were landed at the first steamboat station 
about ten o'clock, having made the seventeen miles in 
canoes in three hours. Our first steamer on this far- 
famed river is a novelty. It draws twelve or fourteen 
inches of water and is built for shooting the rapids, and 
we certainly had a great ride on it. There were rapids at 
least every half mile, and the water was so shallow that the 
steamer dragged on the rocks at each rapid; it was built 
with heavy wooden bottom and slid over apparently 
without damage. 

We went down the river on this first steamer until 
twelve o'clock, where another steamer was awaiting us. 
This second steamer is a little larger than the first, and 
draws fifteen or sixteen inches of water, but built in the 
same way for shooting the rapids. 

49 



After getting a good lunch at the house boat, moored 
here to serve as a hotel, we steamed on down to 
Pipiriki, where we stopped for the night. There is nothing 
at this place except the hotel built there for the use of 
tourists, and it is very good. 

Next morning, we started out early on the largest 
steamer on the river; it is about fifty per cent larger than 
the second steamer which we used the day previous. We 
had here some additional passengers and, including the 
crew, carried forty people, and the boat was full. I should 
mention that the crew on all these steamers consisted of 
the pilot, who is also the captain, the engineer and two 
polemen, one at the bow and the other at the stern, each 
with a pole. In many places the turns were so sharp, and 
the current so swift, that these polemen were needed to 
push the steamer either to starboard or port. 

There is some local business along the river; whenever 
an individual wishes to ride, all he does is to wait on the 
bank of the stream and call to the pilot when the boat comes 
in sight; they are quite accommodating, and will land for 
one passenger or a box of fruit. We had quite a cargo of 
fruit at the end of the day's run, probably twenty small 
boxes; the fruit is very fine here. 

We arrived at Wanganui City about two P. M., 
having traveled, in these two days, about one hundred and 
fifty miles down one of the most beautiful rivers in the 
world. The bluffs on either side are nearly perpendicular, 
and usually from one hundred to one thousand feet high; 
the river is small and narrow and is a veritable gorge most 
of its length. The bluffs are covered with semi-tropical 
verdure of a dark green, and lovely tree ferns, which grow 
in greatest profusion everywhere along this river. 

51 



We were favored with two bright sunny days for tliis 
trip, and found it extremely interesting and exciting; the 
views were so grand and beautiful all the way, that we 
were on the alert every moment, trying to see it all, and 
also trying to get as many snap-shot photographs as 
possible. It is the most beautiful scenery in New Zealand, 
and should not be missed by anyone visiting this country. 

From Wanganui City, we went by railway through a 
fine farming country to Wellington, at the south end of 
the North Island, and that night took the new Turbine 
Steamer Maheno, for the South. This gave us but a few 
hours in which to visit this beautiful young city, which is 
the capital of New Zealand. It is built mostly on the low 
ground bordering the harbor, and is surrounded by hills 
from five hundred to one thousand feet high. We took a 
carriage drive over most of the city and were surprised to 
see so many beautiful public buildings and fine homes with 
extensive lawns about them. There is a cable railway here, 
which carried us to the top of a very steep hill about five 
hundred feet high (one car going down pulls the other up, 
with a little assistance from a stationary engine.) The 
view from the top of this hill overlooks the city and harbor, 
and is grand; the harbor is large and deep. The largest 
vessels come alongside the dock, and the shipping business 
done here is large. In fact, the traffic done by steamers 
around the coast cities is much larger than one would 
expect, probably because the harbors are good and vessels 
make good time and have been in use many years, while 
the facilities for travel by railway are comparatively new, 
and but few railroads are built as yet. 

Leaving Wellington at night, next morning we awoke 
in Lyttleton, which is the port for Christ Church. Here 

53 




WAIROA GUYSER, WHAKAREWAREWA, NKW ZEAIvAND. 



we took passage by rail, nine miles to this city. The 
weather was stormy, so that we did not see as much of 
this place as we desired. The residents claim that Christ 
Church has more beautiful homes than any other city in 
New Zealand. At any rate, it is a place to please the 
traveler, has fine, wide streets, well paved, and does a 
large commercial business ; as might be inferred from its 
name, this city is well supplied with churches. The 
population is Scotch, and the most of the churches are 
Presbyterian. The whole city is neat and clean, and it is 
a fine location for the International Exhibition which is in 
progress at this time ; it is a great show, fashioned after 
the World's Fairs we have been having in the United 
States. The Exhibition is extraordinarily good for a 
country so new, and a great credit to the wide-awake 
energy of New Zealand. We had one day to spend here, 
and could only take a bird's-eye view of the great show, 
but were much pleased with what we saw of it; The 
Fernery particularly we thought the best exhibit we had 
ever seen of that kind ; the location and grounds are very 
fine, and present a beautiful scene. 

After spending one day at Christ Church and the 
Fair, we left that night by the steamer Maheno for 
DuNEDiN. where we landed early the next morning. This 
is one of the "big four" towns of New Zealand, and is 
also a beautiful growing city, located on a fine little 
harbor. Our steamer, which is the largest of the Union 
Line, comes alongside the wharf, so that her shipping 
facilities are good, though her harbor is cjuite small. They 
have a line of electric street cars, as good as the best in 
New Zealand, also fine shipping houses and good banks. 
The population is mostly Scotch, and their churches, or 

55 



many of them, are Presbyterian, although they have a few 
of other denominations. They have fine large retail stores 
and draw trade from a long distance, as they are the 
largest town of the south part of the Southern Island. 
Also, they have a public park, or "Botanical Gardens," as 
they call it, which would do credit to any city of 150,000 
population in the United States. Here, also, the most 
beautiful homes, with fine landscape gardens, are the rule, 
and when we learn that all the trees, shrubbery and hedges 
are ever-gieen and the same all the year around, we can 
imagine what a beautiful appearance they always have. 

Dunedin is said to be the most wealthy city in New 
Zealand, and is in a prosperous condition at this time. As 
we are making a flying trip, we only spent one day here, 
and the next day, which was Sunday, at Port Chalmers, a 
small town on the ocean which was at one time the harbor 
for Dunedin. Since then, the Dunedin Harbor has been 
dredged and put in shape for the largest vessels in these 
parts. We went to church at Port Chalmers and heard an 
old-fashioned Scotch Presbyterian preach a good sermon. 

That night, we were off again on our ship Maheno for 
Bluff, where we landed early the next morning; this is the 
most southerly city in New Zealand, nearly fifty degrees 
south latitude ; it is small, but has a good harbor, also a 
railway running to Dunedin and Christ Church. Being so 
far south, we found it Cjuite cold ; still, they have no frost 
here on the coast. The population, like Christ Church 
and Dunedin, is mostly Scotch. 

The climate of New Zealand is generally mild, and 
there are not so great changes in temperature as in the 
United States. Situated in mid-ocean, between 30 and 50 
degrees south latitude, they are able to raise almost 

57 



anything that can be raised in the United States. Yet, 
they do not raise much wheat, very httle corn, and no 
cotton, which are our three greatest crops. Owing to 
their mild cHmate, they have greatly the advantage of us in 
stock-raising, as all stock graze the whole year round, and 
while they raise fine horses, yet the most of their land is 
devoted to sheep and cattle grazing. Their chief exports 
are wool, lamb, mutton, beef and butter ; all the meat and 
butter is frozen and carried to Europe in that condition. 
They have many large slaughtering and freezing establish- 
ments, where they prepare the meat for export. They 
have a great reputation for being fine butter makers, and 
get high prices in Europe for their butter. 

We did not have time to view the whole of the South 
Island, and only stopped at the principal cities. Really, 
we should have spent two weeks in the interior and on the 
western side of the Island, as some of the grandest scenery 
is to be seen in the mountains and lakes of South New 
Zealand; the central and eastern side of the Island is one 
large undulating plateau, fully occupied with farms and 
grazing land, said to be the largest and best body of 
tillable land in the colony. Down the western part of the 
Island runs the largest mountain range in this part of the 
world ; many of these mountains are ten to fourteen 
thousand feet high, their peaks covered all the year with 
snow; also, interspersed between them are many of the 
most beautiful clear, cold lakes and several large glaciers. 
As this range of mountains rises abruptly from the 
seashore, the view from the sea is said to be grand beyond 
description, equal to the "Norway Fiords." Steamers 
only visit these waters in January, which is their mid- 
summer. At other seasons, the weather there is too 



59 




WANGANUI RIVER, NRW ZEAL,AND. 



stormy. As these are the only high mountains in 
Southern New Zealand, they cause the tremendous rainfall 
of two hundred and forty inches, or twenty feet per 
annum, on the west coast, as the rains and winds are 
almost entirely from the west. The lower part of these 
mountains are always covered with dense forest and green 
verdure. The rainfall on the east side of the mountains, 
where the farming land is located, is only about thirty-five 
inches, and sometimes less ; in fact, this year they are 
complaining that they did not have enough rain, still they 
never have a drouth in New Zealand, and the whole 
country looked like our May or June wdien we were there. 
Immigration is restricted here ; Chinese, Japanese 
and all colored or Negro people are excluded. Labor 
unions are common, and wages for labor are about the 
same as in the United States. Living is considerably less, 
and it would seem that the laborer should make a greater 
saving here than with us. They have eight hours for a 
labor day, and with Wednesday or Saturday half holiday. 
The Government is working on the plan of giving the 
laboring man every possible advantage, and in some parts 
of the country they build cottages for the laborers and 
charge them a very low rental. On account of having 
restricted immigration, they are having much trouble now 
to get farm hands ; this will undoubtedly check the 
advance in farming and the opening up of new land. The 
Government not only discourages the large land owner, 
but, by law, they now take the large estates from the 
owner, except a homestead of 500 acres, whether he is 
willing or not, and pay him the appraised value thereof, 
cut it up into small farms, and sell or lease to the small 
farmer. We saw a complaint in one of their newspapers, 

61 



stating that twenty years ago an Englishman came here 
and bought 3600 acres of wild land from the Government. 
He worked hard and cleared it up, had some years of light 
crops, so that he has not made money until the last ten 
years. Now, when he is doing well after having spent 
the most valuable years of his life in making an estate and 
home, the Government takes it from him. He thinks it an 
injustice and will return to England forever, so that while 
the Government aims to do the most good to the greatest 
num.ber, still it works a hardship on some, and is not 
entirely satisfactory. 

The Government owns nearly all public utilities in 
New Zealand, — the railroad, street cars, electric lights, 
wagon roads, parks, banks, schools, post-office, telegraph, 
telephones, some hotels, many improved farms, which they 
lease out, — in fact, the Government undertakes to own and 
run nearly or quite everything that is used by the public. 
How this will come out in the end remains to be 
determined by years of experience. They claim that at 
this time the railroads are earning three and a half per 
cent on their cost of building, equipment and repairs. 
They are better built than most of our railways ; ever}^ 
station house is well built and equipped with fine rain 
sheds. The roads are gravel or stone ballasted, and their 
passenger fares are much less than ours, notwith- 
standing the fact that the roads run through hilly and 
mountainous country and are more expensive than they 
are usually in the United States. We did not learn what 
the freight rates were, but the country is sparsely settled, 
and if they earn now three and a half per cent, it would 
appear that when the country is well settled up the 
earnings will be much greater, or the rates will have to 

63 . 



be reduced below their present low rates. The cost of a 
telegraph message between any two points in New Zealand 
is twelve and a half cents in our money. This is not more 
than one-third our rates. The fares on tram cars, as they 
are called here, are all less than our street car fares. Their 
fine gravelled and graded Government wagon roads 
are free. 

Their population at present is less than one million 
people in all, and the area of the two large Islands, called 
the North and South Island, is about twelve hundred miles 
long by six hundred miles wide, only about one-half of 
which is valuable as farm or grazing land, the balance 
being rough and mountainous. 

The native trees and hedges are evergreen and do not 
shed their leaves at any season ; this gives the country a 
look of perpetual spring or summer. There are some 
trees imported from England or America which shed 
their leaves here the same as they do in their native land. 
The Eucalyptus trees grow their leaves edgewise, but all 
other trees grow their leaves flat surface up, same as ours. 

Commerce and trade of all kinds is in the hands of the 
English or Scotch. We saw very few other people in 
trade. There is absolutely no poverty in New Zealand; 
at least none that could be seen by a casual traveler, and 
we often heard the remark, "There is no poverty in New 
Zealand." We believe they are the most reliable and trust- 
worthy people on the face of the earth today — at least, so 
far as our knowledge, experience and acquaintance goes. 
We have at all times heretofore made it a rule to lock our 
room doors in hotels at night, when asleep or in day time, 
when away, but here it is not so. We traveled the whole 
length of the two Islands and never locked our room doors 

65 



at any time, clay or night, after the first day, when we were 
informed that it was not customary to do so; even a hack- 
man win very seldom overcharge in New Zealand. 

The money used in New Zealand is the English 
coinage, both gold and silver, but their banks issue their 
own notes; one sees very seldom a Bank of England note 
here. If one gets any New Zealand bills while here, it is 
better to dispose of them before leaving, as they will not 
pass at par elsewhere. 

Wild animals and fish are numerous in the Islands now, 
but they have nearly all been brought here from England 
or the United States. Originally, there was almost no 
game or fish here. The Duck-billed Platipus is a native, 
though not very plenty; it is a kind of duck but has no 
WINGS. There are no snakes or serpents of any kind on 
these Islands. The Fish Commissioner of New Zealand 
came down on the same steamer with us. He had been in 
the United States for several months and secured quite a 
cargo of fish eggs, which are to be distributed in various 
waters of the Islands. Importation of fish eggs has been 
going on for several years, and their waters are fairly 
stocked with fish now. 

Their public schools are about as numerous as ours, 
and all have an opportunity to get a good education. 

The crescent of the moon opens towards the north 
in all southern latitudes, while our moon crescent opens 
to the south. This peculiarity of the moon had never been 
brought to my attention until actual observation. 

The Maoris, or colored natives, who originally occupied 
these Islands, are still to be seen in goodly numbers 
in many parts of the country. They are copper-colored, 
and about half way between our North American Indian 

67 



and the African Negro in physical appearance. They 
have black straight hair, are kindly disposed people and 
are treated with the greatest consideration by the whites; 
in fact, by the laws of New Zealand, the Maoris are to 
always have four of their people in the New Zealand 
legislature. They have had lands allotted to them, and live 
in any part of the country they prefer; they have every 
privilege that the white men have, and many of them speak 
English. They are not good workers, but take life easy 
and are strictly honest — that is, the full bloods — and will 
not enter a white man's house when he is absent. There 
are many mixed bloods among them however, called half- 
caste, which have a bad reputation for honesty. 

On March i8th, we sailed from Bluff the south part of 
the South Island, on the Turbine Screw Steamer Moheno, 
for Melbourne, Australia, distance thirteen hundred miles. 
We had often heard it reported that the Tasmanian Sea was 
awfully rough, but we always had such pleasant sailing 
weather that we thought we would make the trip with 
smooth seas, as it only takes four days, and we started with 
fine weather; however before we had gotten half way across, 
the usual bad weather prevalent in this sea struck us, and 
we learned what a storm at sea was. A real sure enough 
storm came on, we tossed about badly, and the spray 
washed over every part of the ship, coming through in the 
social hall and first-class dining room so that everything 
was wet in that part of the vessel, and the boat pitched and 
rolled so badly that it was very difficult to keep the 
dishes on the table; in fact there were but few who had any 
desire to go to the dining room. Really the whole ship at 
this time was about the most dreary, wet, cold and 
uncomfortable place we had ever seen. Our party all 

69 



proved to be very good sailors, but it was running in the 
mind of one of us, "What did we come here for anyhow? 
How much more pleasant it would be at home?" I here 
insert a quotation cut from a paper in Hobart, Tasmania, 
showing the experience of the Steamer Athenic in the same 
storm; she came into the Hobart harbor just a few hours 
behind us: 

"Hobart, Friday. — The steamer Athenic arrived here 
last night, after a rough time off the Tasmanian coast. 
She made a good trip from the Cape, and would have 
reached Hobart the day before time, but on Wednesday, 
with a fast falling barometer, the wind suddenly shifted to 
the southwest, increasing to a whole gale, with a tremendous 
sea and heavy rain, which continued throughout the night. 
By half-past eight A. M., on March 20th, the gale had 
increased to a storm, and the ship had arrived off 
Maatsuyker; but conditions were most unfavorable for 
making land, and the Athenic was hove-to till 6 A. M., on 
March 21st, when she made for Hobart. Captain Kempson, 
who has been trading out here for nearly a cjuarter of a 
century, states that he had never seen a bigger sea. 
Notwithstanding the ship's great height (the captain's 
bridge is 55 feet above the water line), the spray continually 
broke aboard and over the bridge. The Athenic left for 
New Zealand tonight, taking a consignment of apples for 
Rio de Janeiro. 

Also, the Ketch H. J. H. had a rough time on the trip 
from Melbourne to Hobart. She arrived here today, in a 
battered condition. Her decks on the voyage were 
continually swept by heavy seas. Her bowsprit and 
jib-boom were carried away, her main sail split, and a boat 
washed overboard; the crew are all safe." 

71 



TASMANIA. 

We arrived in Hobart, Tasmania, March 21st, after the 
big storm, and when we got into this shehered harbor 
the sim was shining brightly, the harbor and surroundings 
looked very beautiful, indeed. Hobart is one of the prettiest 
little cities we have seen; population 55,000, all English. 
We took a carriage and drove over the city, and were much 
pleased at its appearance. The harbor is very deep and 
wide; it is really an arm of the sea and extends inland 
about thirty miles. Hobart is situated about ten miles 
back from the main coast on this inlet, which is from 
half a mile to two miles wide. At the time we were there, 
we saw four large British battleships anchored in the har- 
bor; one, the Powerful, lay fine for us, and we took a 
snapshot photograph of her. 

The whole country around this harbor is so beautiful 
that it is a great pleasure to view it, as we did, on a 
pleasant sunshiny day, from the top of a large hill which is 
included in the public park, or "Domain;" we thought it 
looked much like the Hudson at the Palisades, a short dis- 
tance above New York. 

The principal source of income to the people of 
Tasmania is their fruit crop. They raise everything in the 
way of fruit that we do, and are justly proud of the fine 
quality and appearance of their apples, pears, peaches and 
grapes. The Tasmanian apples have a name in all parts of 
New Zealand, Australia, Eastern South America and 
Europe, as being very fine in flavor and appearance. One 
old English lady who lives there told us they were "just 
as good as English apples." They also have very fine 
copper and tin mines, which are being worked just now 
with great profit. 

73 



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HAWKS CRAG, BUIvI,ER GORGE, NEW ZEAL,AND. 



The island was discovered in 1642 by Tasman, a 
famous Dutch navigator, who gave it the name of Van 
Dieman's Land in honor of Anthony Van Dieman, who 
assisted him in his work, and was at that time Governor 
General of the Dutch possessions in East India. Lieutenant 
John Bowen, with a party of convicts from Sydney, took 
possession of the Island for the English in 1803, and it was 
used for a convict settlement for Great Britain until 1856, 
when the Government was transferred to the inhabitants, 
and its name was changed to Tasmania. 

AUSTRALIA. 

After a half day pleasantly spent in Hobart, we 
departed on our way to Melbourne, Australia, which 
we reached early Saturday morning, March 23rd. This is 
a large city, about half a million population, almost 
entirely English. It has fine wide streets, clean and well 
paved, and is strictly "up-to-date" in all respects. The 
harbor is excellent, being really a large river, which is so 
built up with docks and warehouses that it has the 
appearance of being a huge canal. This water-way is 
several miles long, extending through the city, giving 
Melbourne great shipping facilities. At present it is the 
temporary capital of Australia. They have many large and 
fine Government buildings, schools, hospitals, churches, a 
Coney Island pleasure resort on the sea beach, electric and 
cable tramways, public parks, etc. In fact we think it looks 
very much like St. Louis, Missouri, or would if St. Louis 
did not have the coal smoke, as Melbourne is a bright, 
clean city. We took a drive over the residence district, 
made beautiful by their architectural style, and especially by 

75 



their handsome landscape gardens, which are not excelled 
by any that we have seen. Everything here is evergreen, 
and while their season at this date corresponds to our Octo- 
ber 1st, yet all these beautiful gardens and lawns look like 
May or June, and look that way all the year. 

The state of Victoria has about 1,000,000 population, 
and over half of them are in Melbourne, showing that the 
country districts are sparsely settled, although this is the 
best part of Australia. 

One bright morning, we took the train for a short 
ride of twenty miles from Melbourne to Frankston, where 
our friends met us at the station, and drove the six miles 
to their beautiful country home, "Moondah." This place 
is 640 acres in extent, and we had a drive of half a mile 
from the entrance of the grounds to the lodge. The drive 
was through the native "bush," which is most picturesque 
in places. From the lodge gates, the landscape gardening 
is in evidence — the driveway lined with Golden Cypress, 
which is kept clipped to the same height all the way — and 
there were a great many beautiful flowers blooming, mostly 
dahlias, which grow much more luxuriantly in Australia 
than in America. 

The house is a large stone mansion, built most 
attractively with great arched verandas on both the first 
and second stories. It is situated on a knoll overlooking 
the sea, and in plain view of the big ocean liners. All the 
rooms are big and airy, particularly the billiard room, 
which is arranged with a raised platform at the end, so that 
it can be converted into a theatre for amateur theatricals 
gotten up by the house parties which are often given there. 

It was a most glorious day, and we enjoyed to the 
utmost the hospitality extended to us by these Australian 

77 



friends. This place is a typical Australian country home, 
and our hosts were representative of the many Australians 
we met, who were always delightfully cordial to us, mere 
strangers, and were always anxious to extend the hospitality 
of their homes. I do not think there is any country in the 
world where the people are more sincere, or more 
universally cordial, than in this great island continent. 

We left Melbourne Monday night, March 25th, by 
railway, for Sidney, distance five hundred miles. This train 
was made up of an observation car, which is very good for 
this country, but does not compare with the palatial 
observation cars in the United States, although they charge 
four shillings (or one dollar) extra for a seat in it. The 
others were first-class compartment cars, such as are used 
in Europe. The track is five feet six gauge, the widest we 
ever saw. This train runs to the state line between 
Victoria and New South Wales, at a town called Albury. 
Here all must change cars, as the track gauge in New 
South Wales is four feet eight and a half inches. We 
reached Albury at eleven o'clock at night and found a 
train of sleeping cars awaiting us. These were better than 
we had expected to find in Australia, being cross section 
compartment sleepers, comfortable, but small. One end of 
the sleeper is set apart for ladies, and the other end for 
men. This train took us through to Sidne}^ where we 
arrived at eleven o'clock in the morning. Time averaged 
twenty-eight miles per hour for the best and fastest train 
on the continent. 

All the railroads in Australia are built by the different 
states, and are better built that ours, being well laid with 
good, heavy rails, and rock ballasted. Each state has a 
different track gauge. Victoria state railways are live feet 

79 



six inches. New South Wales four feet eight and one-half 
inches, Queensland three feet six inches. This prevents 
one road from getting the cars belonging to another and 
using them for an indefinite period, as they do in the 
United States. Of course, it forces the reloading of all 
passengers and freight at each state line, and much delay, 
but they do not seem to think that of much importance. 
In fact, each state has its own large seaport city, and most 
of the shipping is done by sea. We traversed, on the trip 
from Melbourne to Sidney, a poor country with thin soil, 
slightly undulating; it lays well enough to make good 
farming land, if the soil was good. This part of the 
country is given up to grazing cattle and sheep, and that 
near Melbourne is so dry at present that the stock find 
very little to eat, and water is very scarce; no scenery 
worth looking at. 

On arrival at Sidney, we left same day for Medlow 
Bath, a beautiful summer resort seventy miles west by rail, 
in the Blue Mountains. This is a most popular resort for 
Sidney people in hot weather. It is 3416 feet above sea 
level, very rough and mountainous. Mr. Mark Foy, the 
Marshall Field of Australia, has built a beautiful hotel here, 
called "The Hydro." It is a quarter of a mile long and 
has a picture gallery almost the entire length, containing 
over three hundred pictures, many of which are real works 
of art. It also has a fine little theatre, which is used for a 
dancing hall when needed, and a beautiful billiard room. 
The hotel and ground is said to have cost seventy thousand 
pounds, or three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It 
certainly is a great thing for the people of Sidney, and is 
well patronized. The price of room and board is four 
guineas per week, which looks cheap to us, being only 

81 




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about half what is charged at our summer resorts. This 
hotel is open all the year and has much beautiful mountain 
scenery around it. We stopped here eight days and 
explored the country in all directions. This is the Easter 
holiday season, and the hotel is full; the Australians have 
four holidays for Easter, and everyone who can, skips out 
to some place like this for rest and amusement; at the same 
time, all the people from the surrounding country flock 
into Sydney to see the races, which last about ten days. 
Business is entirely suspended, and it is just as well to be 
jolly and happy with the crowd, as you cannot transact any 
business at such times. As we are on a pleasure trip, it is 
all the same to us. 

I have told you of the immense size of the hotel; well, 
I went to church on Easter- Sunday at the smallest church 
building I ever saw, if not the smallest in the world. It 
was certainly in great contrast with the hotel — size 16x24 
— and it was not crowded. There were twenty-six persons 
at the service, including the preacher and the organist; the 
Church of England service and sermon was very good. I 
trust the final division of the sheep and goats will not be on 
the basis of the size of these two buildings. 

This hotel is considered a great show place, and 
visitors come from all this part of the country to see it; a 
shilling each person is charged for a "view permit" to see 
the pictures and grounds. They have a farm which 
supplies the vegetables for the hotel; it is in plain view from 
the hotel, but far below us in the valley. A wire rope 
brings the eatables from the farm to the hotel; it takes a 
walk of three miles to get down to the farm and a drive of 
seven miles to get back. The drive back from Valley 
Farm is the most picturesque around Medlow Bath; nearly 

83 



all the way the road winds through a deep gorge, with the 
cliffs rising high on either side. On each side of the road 
are wonderful tree ferns, some of which grow to a height 
of twenty or thirty feet; there are many different kinds of 
fern here, the small kind that we have entirely covering 
the ground. 

This whole country, for many miles, is covered with 
Eucalyptus forest trees, called "Gum" trees by the natives; 
in fact it is the most common tree in Australia, as well as 
New Zealand, and it is most peculiar to us, as the leaves 
hang edgewise instead of flat, like other trees, and it sheds 
its bark every year, giving the trunk and limbs a bare and 
uncanny appearance in autumn. It makes good firewood 
and is used for fences, but is good for nothing for lumber. 

Govetts Leap is about five miles from the Hydro Hotel 
and is a grand view, with abrupt cliff's about one thousand 
feet high. Wentworth Falls, ten miles from the hotel, is 
another beautiful scenic place; the view around these Falls 
is enchanting. There is another trip to the caves forty-five 
miles up and down the mountains, which is said to be very 
fine, but we did not have time to go there. 

We used automobiles for our trips around this part of 
the country, as the roads are very finely graded and 
macadamized; these roads were built by convicts sent out 
from England nearly a century ago. 

After enjoying a very pleasant visit at this very popular 
summer resort, and meeting many delightful people from 
various Australian points, we returned for a week in the city. 

Sydney is the greatest city in this part of the world, 
about one century old, and has a population at present 
over 600,000. We had fine weather while there, neither 
too hot nor too cold — about like the latter part of 

85 



September in our country. The Easter holiday sports 
filled the city from all paits of New South Wales, the races 
being the greatest attraction. The race course is about 
two miles from the central part of the city; we went there 
on Saturday, April 6th. The grounds are the finest we 
ever saw for races, and there is nothing fast enough to 
please the Australian sport, except the running races. We 
saw six races during the afternoon; the course is a well- 
sodded GRASS PLAT, oue and a half miles around. One 
was a steeple-chase over hurdles, which was very disastrous, 
both to the riders as well as the horses. Five horses 
started in this race, which was one three-mile heat or twice 
around the course; before the heat was finished, one horse 
had fallen and broken his neck, and two others had fallen 
and broken legs, so that they had to be shot; only two 
horses finished. The riders, fortunately were not seriously 
hurt. They told us it was seldom that so many horses 
were hurt in a race, but it shows what desperate 
racers these people are — the horses are forced to their 
utmost, without regard to consequences. 

The attendance was estimated at 30,000. So far as we 
could observe, everybod}^ — men, women and children 
(except our family) — were betting on the races. As soon 
as one race was finished, the whole audience would desert 
the seats, rush to the betting place, put up their money 
and return to see the result. They think they cannot enjoy 
the race unless they have something at risk; it seems to be 
natural for these people to bet on everything. They do not 
enjoy a social card game unless they bet on the game; if 
they win they accept it with good grace, and if they lose, 
they say, "Never mind; will make it back next race" or 



87 




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"next game." To us, it seemed extraordinary to see 
the ladies betting on horse races or card games. 

This race course is large and the amphitheatre, or 
grandstand, is amply large, so that everyone is accommo- 
dated with a good seat under shelter, without overcrowding. 
There are eight hundred members who belong to this 
Jockey Club. The initiation fees are one hundred pounds, 
and the annual dues are fifty pounds. The Australians say 
the running stock is better for their climate than the 
trotter, but I think that the qualities of the runner do not 
compare at all with the trotting horse for general utility 
purposes. 

Next day being Sunday, we attended the Church of 
England, which is a large edifice, and heard a grand, good 
sermon; subject, "Christ Driving the Money Changers Out 
of the Temple." In his remarks, the preacher mentioned 
that he had heard that some churches in Australia had 
raised funds for church work by having public balls, 
keeping the young people out nearly all night, also by 
private theatricals, and by horse-racing. He compared 
these ways of raising money for church work with the 
occupation of the Temple for merchandise purposes, which 
Christ disapproved. 

The harbor of Sydney is one of the largest and best in 
the world. Sidney people say it is the most beautiful of 
any, and the largest except that of Rio Janeiro. The 
entrance is between two high head-lands less than a mile* 
apart, and the coast line inside is over fifteen hundred miles 
all deep water, so that ships of any draft can go anywhere, 
and docks without number can be built to accommodate 
all kinds of shipping trade. The bay or harbor is not a 
wide, unbroken sheet of water, but is usually half a mile to 

89 



two miles wide, and has a great number of arms cutting 
into the mainland. Also, two small rivers empty into 
this bay; both are deep and navigable, for the largest 
steamers, twenty miles or more. 

On this coast line is built the city of Sydney, and its 
beautiful homes. The coast is almost always rock, and 
rises from nothing to one hundred feet above the sea. 
Outside the business part of the city, along the water's 
edge, many of the most elegant homes are located, 
surrounded by the most beautiful grounds, greatly 
improved by the art of the landscape gardener. 

We had the great pleasure of being invited to tea at 
one of these handsome homes lying on a small promontory 
in this never-to-be-forgotton harbor. This home covers 
about four acres and is reached by steam ferry from the 
central business part of Sydney in ten minutes. The 
residence and grounds face south and east and gradually 
rise to about fifty feet above sea level, with a private swim- 
ming pool and boat landing at the water's edge. Two 
landscape gardeners are continually employed to keep the 
grounds, flow^ers, shrubbery and grass plots in the most 
perfect order; being a semi-tropical climate, the whole place 
has the appearance of perpetual Spring; this is only one of 
a thousand such homes. We were royally treated while in 
Sydney by many of our newly-made Australian friends. 
One of them took us for a half day's excursion in his small 
steam yacht, which enabled us to get a bird's-eye view of 
this beautiful harbor and its enchanting shores. 

Sydney has several very fine lines of steam ferry boats, 
which all start from Circular Quay, and all street railways 
start from the same place, in the heart of the business 
district, and from this point one can reach any part of this 

91 



great harbor very quickly. We counted se\'en large 
British Men-of-War, lying at anchor, while the ocean liners 
and freight steamers were many times too numerous to 
count. 

This harbor with its great shipping facilities, is what 
has built up this great city, and with the greatest island 
continent behind it, which has only just begun to expand, 
there is not the slightest doubt of the continued prosperity 
of Sydney. There is one unpleasant thing about this 
harbor; its waters are infested by sharks, which cause the 
death of several persons each year. Bathing, except within 
fenced enclosures, is not safe; some time ago, while a 
pleasure party were out in a yacht, a lady put her hand 
over the side of the boat in the water, and the hand was 
snapped off by a shark. 

They have a fine training ship here for boys, between 
ten and eighteen years of age, who have been arrested for 
misdemeanors. We visited this ship and were much 
pleased at the appearance of the boys — three hundred and 
seventy-eight in number, and not one in the hospital, 
which is a fine record for the commander. They are under 
the regular navy rules; everything on the ship is neat and 
clean, and many of the boys enlist in the navy when they 
are discharged from the training ship. The captain showed 
us every courtesy; he also mentioned that his boys were so 
fond of swimming near the ship that the sharks usually got 
one or two of them every year. 

There have been several cases of bubonic plague in 
Sydney during the last few months. The authorities are 
very careful and keep every case which appears in a hospital 
for this special disease, and disinfect all premises where it 
appears. It is now on the decrease, although there were 

93 



two new cases reported during the week we were there, 
and we were warned to be very careful about our diet. Of 
course, when one is a long way from home, such things do 
not sound pleasant, and if we feel slightly indisposed for a 
day, we begin to think perhaps we have the plague. It is 
a deadly disease and much more feared in this part of the 
world than cholera, yellow fever or small-pox. 

We sailed from Sydney April loth, on the S. S. 
Eastern (Captain W. G. McArthur), for Hong Kong, 
China, regular run twenty-three days, with six stops on the 
way. After two days, w^e anchored at the wharf of 
Pinkenba, which is the port for Brisbane, nine miles up the 
harbor by rail. This harbor is not good, the water being 
too shallow; large steamers do not go higher than 
Pinkenba, and cargo is brought down on lighters. 

Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland, 
population 125,000, a beautiful young city with a rapidly 
developing country around it. Nearly all the sugar in 
x\ustralia is raised in this state; the soil is very fertile, and 
the climate is semi-tropical. The city in appearance is 
more like St. Joseph, Missouri, than any we have yet seen. 
There is one peculiar thing about their homes; On account 
of high water, which is liable to overflow the lower parts of 
the city and suburbs, they build their houses about four to 
six feet above the ground, on posts. They say this is also 
more healthy than to have the houses built on the grbund, 
as the wind has free circulation under and keeps them dry 
and cool. The water coolers here instead of using ice, 
are hung on a rope, so that they swing in the air, which 
has the effect of keeping the water cool. 

There are a great many fine public buildings in 
Brisbane, and the Central Railroad Station is quite as good 

95 



as the Union Depot in St. Louis. The railways are built 
and owned by the state and fares are much lower than with us. 

We spent one day here and drove over most of the 
city, also drove out to the home of the Supreme Court 
Justice, whose family we had met at Medlow Bath, where 
we were very cordially entertained. The Judge has an 
elegant country home with beautiful landscape gardens, 
finely located on a hill overlooking the city. The River 
Brisbane flows into Moreton Bay here; it is a beautiful 
stream and is navigable for small steamers twenty-four 
miles above the city of Brisbane. The Labor Party has 
control in politics in Australia, and they have passed laws 
deporting all colored laborers, and have actually deported 
all the colored laborers that were working on the sugar 
plantations, taken them by force and sent them to the Fiji 
and Solomon Islands, where most of them originally came 
from. They also passed laws giving the sugar planters six 
pounds (or thirty dollars) per ton bounty on the sugar 
raised, thinking this would make up for the extra wages 
the sugar planters would have to pay for white labor; but 
the planters are now in great trouble, as they cannot get 
enough white labor to work in the cane fields in this 
tropical climate. Unless these laws are changed speedily, 
the raising of sugar cane will have to be abandoned 
entirely. In fact, the planters say that there will never be 
any more cane planted in Australia. 

Our steamer called at Townsville for cargo, but. the 
harbor is shallow, and we were compelled to anchor some 
distance out; the freight was brought out in small boats, or 
lighters. 

We also called at Cairns. The water there is shallow, 
and we were compelled to anchor seven miles out to sea. 

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As the scenery there is line, we took a small steam tusr 

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and went ashore, then took the railroad and went twenty- 
miles up the mountains to the Barron Falls. This water- 
fall is seven hundred feet high, and a beautiful sight, it is 
the finest water-fall in Australia, has a large volume of 
water flowing now, and this is their dry season. All the 

scenery in this mountainous country is fine. The Barron 
Falls are ten hundred and sixty-five feet above sea level, 
and that is as far as we went, but the railway continues to 
rise for many miles, and on the top of the mountains is 
twenty-five hundred feet above sea level. We saw two 
other water-falls which were beautiful, but the volume of 
water flowing over them at this season is small. This is a 
narrow gauge road, three feet six inches; the grades are steep, 
and curves sharp; the Horseshoe Curve here is a fine sight. 
Then there are fifteen tunnels which we passed through in our 
twenty mile ride. This railroad has two hundred miles of 
track in North Queensland, and does a big freight business, 
transporting the products of mines along its lines. They 
have copper, tin, gold and silver, in good paying mines; 
also, they raise a large amount of cane sugar, some coffee, 
and considerable corn (they call it maize). This is a 
tropical country, and they grow all the tropical fruits, such 
as bananas, pine-apples, etc. The country is comparatively 
new and will, in time be of great importance in mining and 
agriculture, provided they change their laws so that they 
can get colored labor to work on the plantations. Labor 
is scarce here now, and the country will be very slow in 
developing until the labor laws are changed. 

The weather is excessively hot in Cairns, but fairly 
pleasant when w^e got up in the mountains. 



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We called at Cooktown next, named in honor of the 
great navigator. Captain Cook, who discovered all this 
country; did not go ashore, as the harbor here is shallow, 
and our steamer anchored quite a distance out and took 
her cargo off in lighters. 

The Great Barrier, as it is called, is a coral reef 
extending about twelve hundred miles along this coast 
from Brisbane to Thursday Island. At some places it is 
only about five miles ofT the coast, and some places it 
is over a hundred miles. There are many openings, where 
ships can go through, but the ships in this trade steam 
along the coast inside the coral reefs, and the water is 
almost as smooth as a river. These reefs are usually out 
of water at low tide, but most of them are covered with 
water at high tide. 

Along this coast, Neptune has forced up many rock 
Pyramids, one or two hundred feet high, looking at a 
distance almost exactly like Egyptian Pyramids, probably 
to mark the location of some great submerged mountain. 
The sea here is green in color instead of the usual sea 
blue. There are so many rocky mountain heads in this 
channel that it is not safe for a steamer drawing twenty-four 
feet of water, as the Eastern does at present, being heavily 
loaded with cargo, to run during the night. Therefore, 
we anchored two nights while in this dangerous part of the 
ocean. It seems strange to be anchored while out to sea. 
but there are many places here where the sea is so shallow, 
that we found no trouble in making the anchor take hold 
in ten to fifteen fathoms of water, and, the sea being calm, 
we lay quite easy until daylight. 

We had a concert entertainment on board ship, and. 
much to our surprise, found some pretty good talent for 

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singing, cake walk, dancing and comic recitations. A 
pleasant evening was spent, and a collection of four ponnds 
was made up for the benefit of the Sailors' Home in 
Sydney. 

We counted five wrecked vessels in plain sight, as we 
passed through this dangerous channel. Some of them 
were wrecked many years ago, and some recently. There 
they lie, with their blackened hulls, masts and boilers in 
plain view, as a daily warning to the mariner to be ever on 
the alert to avoid similar disaster. We were invited up on 
the bridge by the Captain to get a better view; he lent us 
field glasses to scan the horizon, but requested us to take 
position on one side of the bridge and not to speak to him, 
as he must give every instant of his attention to the course 
of the ship, and his orders to the man at the wheel required 
a change in the direction of the steamer almost every 
moment. "Well," said the Captain, "I always heave a 
thankful sigh of relief after passing that place." 

We passed a fleet of pearl fishing vessels off Thursday 
Island (which is the most northerly point of Australia). 
They are small sailing vessels, about sixty feet long, with 
five men to each boat. One of these is the diver, who goes 
down to the bottom in a diving suit with a rubber hose 
fastened to it, so that they keep him supplied with fresh 
air by use of an air pump, also an apparatus to haul him up 
whenever he gives the signal that he wishes to come to the 
surface. In these waters where pearl fishing is going on, 
the sea is from thirty to one hundred and twenty feet deep, 
and the diver can remain under water ten hours a day if he 
chooses to do so. He creeps along on his hands and feet 
with his face about two feet from the bottom, searching for 
pearl shells. These are brought to the surface and opened 

103 



in search for pearls. The shells are also sold for a good 
price: at present they sell for one hundred and fifty pounds 
(or seven hundred and fifty dollars) per ton. The value 
of the pearls themselves may be very small or very large, 
all depending on the luck they have in finding pearls. These 
pearl fisheries are not nearly as productive now as they 
were several years ago, as they have been pretty well fished 
out. Occasionally a diver is fortunate enough to find a 
very fine, large pearl which sells in the London market 
for two thousand to five thousand dollars, but such finds 
are extremely rare. Although there are plenty of sharks 
here, they will not attack a diver in his suit. 

After rounding Thursday Island Light-house, we 
steamed almost directly west across Carpentaria Gulf, about 
five hundred miles to Port Darwin, the most northwesterl)- 
point in Australia. 

On April 20th, our fellow traveler. Colonel A. H. 
Kellogg, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who has been one of our 
party since leaving San Francisco, celebrated his sixty- 
seventh birthday. The passengers gave him a fine dinner, 
having the usual birthday cake, with lighted candles and 
the United States Flag in the center, and played Dixie and 
Yankee Doodle on the piano, giving three rousing cheers 
for the Colonel and one for the United States. One of our 
passengers, Mr. H. Seal, of Australia, who is a natural 
born artist, but not a professional, drew a comic sketch, 
showing the Colonel on horseback, which was presented to 
and will be highly prized by him. 

Last November, the S. S. Australian, belonging to 
this line, and a sister ship to the S. S. Eastern, on wdiicli 
we are now sailing, was wrecked one hundred and twent}^ 
miles north-east of Port Darwin. This northwest coast of 

105 



Australia has the most terrific tides, rising from twenty- 
seven to thirty feet. What is the cause of this tremendous 
tide, we have not been able to learn. The Australian, 
which was running in the night, and too near the coast, 
was swept on the rocks by this great incoming tide. A 
big hole was stove in near her bow, and another near her 
stern. Fortunately, there was no loss of life. Part of the 

. crew and passengers rowed to shore, about a mile distant, 
that night, part remaining on board and were taken off 
next morning. That part of the cargo which was not 
ruined by water has since been taken off, but the ship still 
lies upright and has not been broken up, although she has 
been swept by the waves and tides for the past five months. 
Our Captain says possibly she might have been floated again 
if she was nearer to ports which have appliances for doing 
such work, but it is twenty-five hundred miles to Sydney, 
Australia, and same distance to Hong Kong, China, and the 

'expens.e of bringing wrecking boats so great a distance has 
prevented an effort being made to float her. It is likely 
that she will remain where she is for years, another 
constant and unpleasant reminder to all mariners wdio sail 
this coast to be on the alert to avoid a similar fate. 

We arrived at Port Darwin, Sunday night, April 21st, 
and landed early in the morning, Monday, to look over the 
town while the S. S. Eastern discharged about eighty tons 
of her cargo. This harbor is fine; we tied up alongside the 
wharf at low tide. The town is called Palmerston and is 
beautifully situated on land about a hundred feet above the 
sea level. Located only eleven degrees south of the 
Equator, they have real tropical weather and raise all the 
tropical fruits and vegetation. The place is situated on 
the extreme northwest corner of Australia and is quite new, 

107 



as compared with the eastern part of the continent. They 
have a railroad running back one hundred and fifty miles 
into the interior, but it is not overloaded with business and 
only runs trains twice a week. They have fine tin mines 
here, also some copper and gold mines; although the 
weather is intensely hot, the people told us that the place 
was healthy. 

There are many Chinese laborers here, and we saw 
many Aborigines, or the people who inhabited Australia 
before its occupation by the English. They are negroes, 
much like the African negro, but not as robust in 
appearance, and of very low order of intelligence. x\s this 
part of the country is very sparcely settled by whites, 
the most of these native negroes have drifted to this 
section. The Government does not give them as much 
consideration as we have given our Indians; they give them 
a blanket each, every year, and a little food once a year, 
not enough to last them long; however, the weather is 
warm, and they do not need much clothing, so they exist 
with very little assistance; their numbers are becoming less 
every year; they will not work. 

The most of this part of Australia is given up to 
grazing; there are many cattle on these ranges, and in this 
part they are not so much troubled with drouth, as they 
are further south. One cattleman who lives near 
Palmerstown told me that they drive their cattle to Sydney 
to market, and that they are just now starting the fat 
cattle to Sydney, as this is the cool part of the year and 
they stand the drive better than in summer, as it is fifteen 
hundred miles by land to Sydney. The drive must be a big 
undertaking; they ought to ship them on steamers. 



109 



They have a great many wild buffaloes in this part of 
the country; these are not like our buffaloes, but like 
the Egyptian and India buffalo cows, which they use in 
Egypt as milk cows, and work cattle, called water-buffalo; 
they are not native to this country, but have been brought 
here. The kangaroo is a native wild animal to be found in 
all wild parts of the country. There are a great many in 
this section — good, big fellows, as large as a six-foot man. 
Australia also has a very large bird, much the size and 
appearance of the ostrich; they call it the Emu. They have 
no value, as their feathers are worthless; the Aborigines eat 
their fiesh, but it is not considered fit to eat by white 
people. 

The exports from this great continent are principally 
wool, frozen mutton, beef, wheat, gold, tin and copper. 
Their gold production last year was sixteen million pounds 
sterling, making them the third largest gold producers in 
the world, only Africa and the United States being ahead 
of them, and their gold production is increasing. Australia, 
being only about one hundred years since first settled by 
the English, is comparatively small in manufactures. Most 
of her manufactured articles are brought from Europe. 
England furnishes the largest part of her imports, and the 
United States comes second; most of their agricultural 
machinery comes from the United States. 

The commonwealth of Australia is divided into six 
states, viz: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, 
Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. These were 
each separate colonies of Great Britain until about six 
years ago, when they were permitted to form a Federal 
Government. In many respects, they have followed the 
forms adopted by the United States, but the home 

III 



Government of England appoints the Governor of each 
state, and the Federal Governor of the whole. Each state 
elects b}^ vote of the people five Senators to the Federal 
Congress, and the Representatives, or Congressmen, are 
elected on a population basis. They have not yet built 
their Federal Capitol buildings, in fact, they have not yet 
decided where their permanent Capitol is to be located; 
at present, the seat of the Federal Government is 
temporarily located at Melbourne, and there is considerable 
strife between Melbourne and Sydney as to where the 
capitol shall be located. 

Each state has its own banks, which issue their own 
bank notes, but the notes or bills issued in one state, are not 
good in any other state. To illustrate, while we were in 
Melbourne, we used bank bills issued in the state of 
Victoria, but before going to Sydney we must exchange 
any of these bills we had on hand for gold sovereigns, 
for if we take the Melbourne money to Sydney, we would 
have to immediately go to the Sydney banks and pay a 
discount to exchange it for Sydney money. 

Australia uses the English coins of gold, silver and 
copper. The people are nearly all English or their 
descendents, and are to-day more like people of the United 
States than any other people in the world. They are 
energetic and pushing in business, and very hospitable. 
We have never had so much cordial entertainment extended 
to us b}^ any people outside of our own country. Although 
we have only been in this great island continent one month, 
yet we formed many most pleasant acquaintances, which we 
hope to see some da}^ in the United States. 

The commonwealth of Australia at present has a 
population of less than four millions and good territory 

113 



enough to support twenty millions without crowding. Part 
of her territory is subject to such severe and long protracted 
droughts that her progress has been retarded. Her people 
can to some extent, avoid loss by droughts, by sinking 
artesian wells, by irrigation, and by putting up hay to 
feed their stock in such emergencies. The labor laws are at 
present greatly retarding the progress of this great country; 
eventually, these laws will, without doubt, be set right, so 
that labor can be brought here under proper restrictions, 
and when that is done, Australia will make more rapid 
progress than has ever been dreamed of by her most 
wide-awake citizens. . The climate is so delightful, and the 
soil so productive, that when they get plenty of labor and 
plenty of water, their permanent prosperity will be assured. 
Our Panama canal, when built, will be of untold benefit 
to both Australia and New Zealand. It will be much the 
shortest and quickest route to London. The Oceanic 
Steamship Company, which has been running between San 
Francisco and Sydney, Australia, for several years, have 
decided to discontinue the line, as they did not get a 
subsidy from Congress, which they claim they should have 
for carrying the mail. New Zealand has been giving them 
one hundred thousand dollars per year for carrying their 
mails. We should have a first class steamship line in this 
trade, and it should belong to the United States and carry 
our flag. A subsidy should be given them, enough to 
justify good steamships, ciuick and regular runs, as Australia 
and New Zealand will continue to increase their trade with 
the United States, if we give them the proper facilities. 
Being new countries, they would be great customers for 
us in the future. However, if we have no steamship line 



115 



between Frisco and Sydney, this trade will be mostly 
diverted to other countries. 

We have often heard of "tiying fish" but never saw 
them until coming here; w^e thought they did not really fly, 
but JUMPED out of the water a few feet. In fact, they are 
a small silver-colored fish, from six to eight inches long 
and have wings about half their length. They jump out of 
the water and fly along quite near the surface, sometimes 
one hundred feet, and sometimes as much as one thousand 
feet. Many of them fly in a bunch, but usually singly. 

We crossed the Equator, April 25th; the Captain blew 
the steamer whistle to let us all know when we crossed it; 
but the sea was as placid as a mill pond, so that* we did not 
feel the "bump" which is usually felt in crossing the 
equator(?) Speaking of "placid sea," we have been jogging 
along on this steamer from Sydney to Manila, four thousand 
five hundred miles, for three weeks without the slightest 
swell. I never saw so calm an ocean — many days so 
smooth it is glassy, and reflects the clouds hanging lazily 
in the horizon; no breeze except that made by the headway 
of our vessel; weather warm enough for thinnest clothing; 
still, we keep fairly comfortable by getting on the shady 
side. With such a lazy boat, on such a lazy sea, what could 
be more ideal for a lazy man? 

There are so many islands on this course that we have 
only been out of sight of land one day. We have fifty 
first-class passengers, who are pleasant fellow-travelers, 
twenty second-class and two hundred Chinese coolies in 
the steerage. These Chinese are rather interesting to us. 
as they are the first we have seen — that is to notice their 
customs. They are as cleanly in appearance as the usual 



117 



E\ 




BARRON FAI,I,S, AUSTRALIA. 700 FEET HIGH. 



steerage passengers on Atlantic liners, but they are all 
gamblers and spend the most of their time in gambling 
with dominoes; they enjoy it greatly, and talk and langh 
very much; they are as noisy as a lot of magpies. We 
notice them at their meals, eating with chopsticks. They 
eat boiled rice as their principal diet at every meal, and 
three vegetables. At some meals they have meat; each 
Chinaman has his individual bowl, holding about a quart; 
this he fills from the tub of rice. They sit on their legs on 
the floor in bunches of about half a dozen in a circle, having 
the vegetables in pans in the center of the circle. Each 
then proceeds to shovel from his bowl into his mouth as 
much rice as his mouth will hold, then they each dip their 
chopsticks in the pans and take a mouthful of vegetables or 
meat, if they have any, and so continue until their meal is 
finished. The crew are all Chinese, and they do their work 
quietly and satisfactorily. Nearly all the steamers that 
touch at China ports use only Chinese for seamen. Not 
long since, Australia and New Zealand have passed laws 
prohibiting all Asiatics from entering their countries, 
except when a bounty of one hundred pounds (or five 
hundred dollars) is paid, and that is equal to prohibiting 
their coming into the country, but they did not deport 
those who were already in the country, so that there are in 
some parts of Australia, many Chinese coolies, or laborers, 
at this time. They are keen after the money, and, labor 
being so scarce, they get good wages, same as the white 
men, usually seven shillings (or one dollar and seventy-five 
cents) per day. Many of them have small garden farms, 
raising vegetables near the cities. They are very econom- 
ical, living on about one-fifth the expense of a white man, 



119 



and, when they are old, they invariably go back to China to 
die, and if they die while away from China, their bones are 
sent home for interment. 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

The first glimpse we had of the Philippine Islands was 
in passing- through the Basilan strait, where we were 
quite close to shore and saw the town of Zamboangi, on 
the Island of Mindanao (which is about one hundred miles 
northeast of the great Island of Borneo). A small number 
of United States soldiers are stationed here; we did not 
stop, but could easily see "Old Glory" flying on the flag- 
pole over the parade grounds. 

"Oh! of course I don't always rave, 
Whenever I see the old flag wave," 

but it's the emblem of the land I love, and looks mighty 
good to me, especially when I haven't seen it for three 
months. 

The country around Zamboangi looks better than any 
we have seen since leaving Australia, and we have seen 
islands almost without number. This part of Mindanao 
Island is covered with cocoa-nut groves, and the ground is 
kept clean of undergrowth; further back, the mountains rise 
to a height of ten or fifteen hundred feet, and are planted 
half way up with banana trees, all being deepest green, 
which makes a very pretty picture. 

About forty miles south of Manila, we passed Mt. 
Halcon, 8865 feet high, situated not far from shore. The 
top is high above the clouds, which hang lazily half way up 



121 



its side. This is the highest mountain in this part of the 
Phihppines, and is a fine sight, as it is covered with green 
verdure to the top. 

We anchored in Manila Bay, about two miles out from 
the city. This bay is almost like an ocean, as it is about 
forty miles wide. The water is usually about one hundred 
feet deep, but is shallow near Manila, so that boats carrving 
large amount of cargo have to anchor well out and unload 
into lighters. 

We were at Manila, the so-called "Pearl of the Orient," 
or the "Venice of the Far East," April 29th and 30th. 
This is the greatest city in the Philippines, and the capitol; 
population 265,000, mostly Philippinos, a few Chinese, and 
other nationalities, also the headquarters for the U. S. 
army and navy, which are stationed in this archipelago. 
It is a better place than we expected to see. The original 
city lies on the south bank of the Pasig river, and is 
surrounded by an old Spanish wall built of stone, about 
thirty feet high, but the most of the business is on the north 
side of the river. Nearly all the business buildings are two 
stories high. The oldest are built of stone, but those built 
during the last few years have the lower story built of stone 
and the upper story of wood, that they may the better stand 
the earthquakes. In these buildings, the upper stories are 
used as residences. There are many pretty looking 
residences in the suburbs, surrounded by tropical trees and 
gardens, mostly occupied by Spaniards or their descendants. 
They are built of stone the first story, and wood second 
story, with tile or galvanized iron roof. The native homes, 
how^ever, are usually built of wood the first story (and 
frequently on wood posts about six feet above the ground, 
for free air circulation under the house), and the second 

123 




MID-DAY STREET SCENE, MANILLA, PHIUPPINES. TOO HOT IN THE SUN. 



story of bamboo poles thatched with grass, and roof made 
of same materials. Sometimes the whole house is made of 
this material. Nearly all the poorer houses are one story 
high, made of bamboo poles thatched with grass. They 
keep out the sun and rain if kept in good repair, but we 
saw many which were sadly in need of repairs. 

On April i8th, just eleven days before we were at 
Manila, they had a severe earthquake, which lasted fifty 
minutes and did much damage by cracking buildings. 
Fortunately, no one was killed, and no buildings were 
thrown down. Earthquakes are frequent here. It is one 
of the hot places of the earth; temperature ranges 75 to 96 
degrees. It was 94 the two days we were there, and 
humidity great, which makes it too hot for exertion until 
the sun goes down. Then everyone who can, goes out on 
the Luneta, a very pretty drive alongside the City Park, 
and the barracks. The bands play in the park, and the 
whole populace, as well as our soldiers, come out for a 
little fresh air and recreation, and drive, walk or sit, until 
about eight p. m. when it is time to go home for dinner. 

We were at the Metropole Hotel, the best in the city 
at this time, only been open about a month and has the 
merit of being clean, but the cooking is Spanish, and if 
there is any kind of cooking that is always bad without any 
exception, it is the Spanish. The beds are bamboo frames 
with a light cotton pad about two inches thick for a 
mattress, and awfully hard; yet I was tired and could have 
slept had it not been for the mosquitos, as I had a 
revolving fan overhead, which ran all night, and made a 
little breeze. The Philippino servant carefully placed the 
mosquito net and tucked it under the mattress all around. 
I guessed that we would have trouble, and, when ready for 

125 



bed, made a quick rush and flank movement, intending to 
leave Mr. Mosquito on the outside, but it was no use, as 
this insect knows the ways of humanity and made it a point 
that we should not be separated. He does not make any 
great noise about what he can do, but quietly and 
persistently does his best to make it lively for his victim. 
I have fought mosquitos in temperate climes where we 
always have frost every winter and kill ofi^ the old ones, so 
that we only have one season's crop at a time, but here 
these insects never die, unless by chance one can hit them 
a good heavy blow; therefore, we had them of all ages and 
sizes, from the ordinary yearling up to the ninety-nine year 
full-grown driller, and a solid army of them. I thought I 
could reduce their numbers by a good long fight, but in 
the end, had to give it up; they were too many for me. 

Manila is in latitude fifteen degrees north, and has an 
annual rainfall of eighty to ninety inches. The rain begins 
about June first and continues most of the time until 
December. From December first to June first is their dry 
season, and during this time they have almost no rain. 

Since the United States have taken charge of the 
Philippines, they have done much for Manila, by building 
good streets with pavements and keeping them clean, and 
have built many sewers. They are still building sewers, 
and have made the city quite a healthy place, as compared 
with what it was in old times under Spanish rule. We did 
not hear of any cholera or plague in the city while we were 
there, and if any contagious diseases were at that time in 
existence, they were so well under control, as to be no 
menace to the general health of the city. 

A tramway, or electric street railway, has recently 
been built out to Fort McKinley, six miles, where our 

127 



government is doing a great and good work in building 
permanent barracks for our soldiers, on high ground 
(Manila is perfectly flat), where they will have good 
sewerage and good air, and will, without doubt, be of 
great benefit to the health of our soldier boys. 

A tine electric tramway runs to all important parts of 
the city, fare twelve centavos (equal to six cents) for first- 
class and ten centavos, second-class; Philippino motormen 
and conductors and very good service. All the policemen 
of Manila are Americans, dressed in the army uniform — 
fine large men and the most polite, accommodating police- 
men I have ever met. 

There are several fine bridges over the Pasig River, 
which is navigable for many miles above the city. In the 
American quarter, there are several American stores, which 
carry fair stocks of goods, handled same way as in the 
United States, with good sized store rooms and plate glass 
show windows, and clerks wearing shirts and trousers, but 
the principal business of the city is done in small shops, size 
about ten feet wide and twelve feet deep, mostly by Chinese 
and native Philippinos, and their clerks are half naked; in 
fact, the most of them only wear trousers and sandals while 
waiting on their trade. There are a few shops owned by 
Germans, Spanish and English, where the proprietors wear 
European dress and the clerks wear shirts and trousers, but 
these are few, and their stocks are small; in fact there is no 
need of anything in this climate but the thinnest clothing, 
and not much of that, so that the dry goods shops cannot 
have a big business. The most of the trade is in groceries, 
coffee, wines, tinware, crockery, hardware, rope, etc., 
usually only one class of goods in each store. 



129 



The Philippine Islands are extraordinarily fertile. 
With heavy rainfall and tropical heat, they raise great crops 
of sngar, rice, coffee, frnit. hemp and tobacco, also there is 
mnch heavy timber here, which will sometime be of great 
value. The principal exports at present are sugar, cigars 
and hemp. 

The Philippino pony is a first-class wiry little horse, 
about seven or eight hundred pounds in weight. He is a 
good pony for the saddle and is the only animal used for 
driving, mostly driven single to a two-wheeled cart. Some 
very nice pony teams are driven to a light four-wheeled 
Victoria. They give good satisfaction and move along at 
a good pace for this hot country. The beast of burden for 
heavy loads and all kinds of farm work is the water-buffalo, 
a large animal about ten or fifteen hundred pounds in weight, 
with a hide like a rhinoceros, and horns growing side-wise 
and turning back, frequently five or six feet across. In the 
city, he is usually hitched in shafts, with a crooked stick 
across his neck for a yoke, and a strap hitched to his nose as 
a rein, and worked to a two-wheeled dray. He is patient 
and moves very slow, and the same can be said of his 
driver; they make a good team, never in a hurry, but get 
there some time, and it is too hot to hurry or worry. This 
animal does good work in the hottest weather, but must be 
unhitched part of the day to roll in the water and mud. 
When permitted, he will lie in the water with his head only 
sticking out, and is perfectly contented. 

As we passed out of Manila Bay, we saw four of our 
fine battle ships, each with four funnels, anchored near 
Cavite, about six and a half miles west of Manila. That is 
where the Spanish fleet lay when our gallant hero, Dewey, 
annihilated it nine years ago. We passed out through the 

131 



regular channel just to the north of a big fort on a fine eleva- 
tion of two hundred feet, standing directly at the entrance 
to the bay. The channel here was filled with submerged 
mines at that time, and Commodore Dewey, having a pilot 
who was well acquainted with these waters, went in 
through a small channel south of the fort and very close to 
it. This narrow channel, it is said, was not mined, and the 
Commodore slipped in very early in the morning before the 
Commander of the fort comprehended what was going on. 
Our Government has placed schools in parts of the 
Philippines, where it is safe to do so, and are teaching 
the English language and trying to make the native 
Philippino fit for self-government. When this object will 
be attained is hard to foretell. These natives are not 
inclined to work, and insist on payment for their labor 
before the w^ork is done. Many capitalists have ventured 
at different times to start plantations in these islands, 
"where every prospect pleases and only man is vile," and 
have suffered great loss because of lack of labor. While 
those natives near Manila are rather intelligent, after many 
years contact with the Spanish, and the last nine years 
with our own people, still, taken as a whole, it would be 
folly to expect them to be self-governing at this time. The 
natives of the interior would rather fight than work. One 
of these natives, who had been captured recently while in 
warfare against our army, was asked what he was fighting 
for. Reply, "Am fighting for my country." Question, 
"What country is yours?" Reply, "I don't know." 
Another w^as asked what he was fighting for. Reply, "Am 
fighting because of the land tax." Question, "Have you 
any land?" Reply, "No." It would seem that such people 
as these have not sufficient civilization and education to be 

133 



self-governing", and such schemers as Agninaklo can easily 
stir them up to armed resistance to the United States, who 
are doing so much for them. We should at the earliest 
possible time give these Philippinos their independence, 
and let them govern themselves under a Republican form 
of government, but when will they be fit to entrust the 
governing power to them? It now looks like it would be 
several years, and in the meantime, our Uncle Sam is 
spending the lives of many of his soldiers and manv 
millions of dollars every year, for no return either now or 
in the future, except for the civilizing of these poor, 
ignorant people. Are they worth this great sacrifice? 
The climate is such that our soldiers cannot live here 
without much sacrifice of life by sickness. Reallv it is not 
a white man's country. No white man can stand the heavy 
work of a laborer here; at least, but a short time. Still, we 
have the Philippinos, and how can we honorably get them 
oiT our hands? I think we should gradually make 'soldiers 
of them, under white officers, starting with one regiment of 
Philippinos, picked from those best educated and civilized, 
and increase their number as they seemed to be suited for 
soldiers, until all the army in the Philippines would be 
natives, with white of^cers, except perhaps one regiment; 
and change the laws regarding this country, so that 
Chinese laborers can be imported to work under competent 
direction, no Chinese to become permanent residents, but 
to be returned to China when his labor contract expires. 
The Chinamen are good workers, and they would in 
time greatly improve the country. Two hundred thousand 
Chinese laborers could readily be had on contract, and in 
ten years they would make a difi^erent country of the 
Philippines. Perhaps, by the end of ten years, the natives 

135 




EXHIBITION OF CRIMINAI, IN "THE STOCKS," STREETS OF HONG KONG. 



would begin to work, after having a good example before 
them. Also, take the brightest of the natives and send 
them to the United States and educate them thoroughly in 
our schools in large numbers, then return them to the 
Philippines; and make school teachers, native officers and 
Philippino congressmen of them. If our Government would 
persevere along this line long enough, we could entirely 
withdraw from these islands with credit to ourselves, and, 
we might hope, with great benefit to the Philippinos, but 
it would require 3^ears to accomplish this much-desired end. 
Another thing: The United States should at once 
abolish all custom duties on the products of the Philippines 
when imported into our country. This would greatly 
assist in the development of the country, and would be a 
long step toward the final independence of these islands. 
It would not ruin the sugar planters of Hawaii, or the 
tobacco growers of the United States, as these commodities 
are not at present raised in such large quantities as to 
overstock our markets, and our consuming power will 
increase faster than the Philippinos' ability to increase 
their output. We should give these people a fair chance to 
make an honest living by work. 



CHINA. 

We crossed the China Sea in fair weather and pleasant 
sailing, although this sea is swept by typhoons and is nearly 
always very tempestuous, and landed at the great city of 
Hong Kong on May 2nd. This city and island on which 
it is situated belongs to England. The European part of 
the city is built up with fine stone structures from four to 



137 



six stories high, with weh paved streets, cleanly swept; it 
looks much like the best parts of Paris. The harbor is one 
of the best, and this is one of the largest shipping ports in 
the world; ships ply regularly between Hong Kong and 
nearly every important port on earth. All ships anchor 
out in the harbor and discharge their cargo into lighters. 
The harbor is about two miles wide and many miles long, 
and so filled with ships that it is the busiest port I have 
seen — large ships and small ships, steamers and sailers, 
Chinese junks and Chinese sampans, with a great number of 
small steam launches and pleasure boats. This is a free 
PORT for all nations — free in every sense — no duties or 
quarantine regulations. Any ship can come and go as she 
pleases, provided, of course, that she does not attempt to 
trespass upon the rights of others, and the whole harbor 
is under the British guns, which are planted in all desirable 
places on the hills. The city is built on a narrow strip of 
land along the south side of the harbor and extends nearly 
half way up the side of a mountain, which rises eighteen 
hundred feet abruptly. There is a cable tramway part of the 
way up the side of this mountain; we went up to the end of 
this line, then took a Sedan chair, carried by two. natives, for 
about a mile, always climbing, then walked about a cjuarter 
of a mile, still climbing. When we reached the top, we 
expected to have a fine view of the city below us, but a 
cloud interfered, so that the view of the city was not good, 
but the view of the harbor and the other side of the island 
was very good. The mountain tops are fortified, and the 
position is a commanding one. They could sink any ship 
in the harbor in a short time; I would call these fortifica- 
tions the Gibralter of the East. 



139 



We stopped at the Hong Kong Hotel, a large stone 
structure in the central part of the European quarter; it 
was filled to overflowing with English and American 
tourists. 

We saw no horses or oxen in Hong Kong. All the 
carriage business is done by Jinrikshas, or Sedan chairs; 
fare, for short distances, five cents in Hong Kong money, 
equal to two and a half cents our money. The coins used 
"in Hong Kong are called dollars and cents. They are 
coined by England, but the coins are like the Philippine 
money, worth just half as much as ours. The banks also 
issue bank notes of the denominations one, five, ten and 
fifty dollars; in these banks the Chinese are clerks, tellers 
and cashiers. They are quick about their work, and have 
a good reputation for ability and honesty. Whenever one 
comes out on the sidewalk, about a dozen rickshaw men 
run around shouting in Chinese that they desire to haul 
you wherever you wish to go. Most of them cannot speak 
English, and if you hire one of them you must know the 
city well enough to know where you wish to go, and then 
direct the rickshaw man which way you wish to turn at 
each corner. These rickshaws are in great numbers in all 
parts of the city. Any merchandise like boxes, barrels, or 
casks, or material for building, such as stone, timber, or 
any heavy freight, is placed on trucks or carts and pushed 
or hauled by men. 

The sampan is a small boat about twenty or thirty feet 
long with a few bamboo sticks bent over the middle of the 
boat, and covered with canvas; under this there are seats 
for four to eight persons. The fare on a sampan is twenty 
cents Mexican or Hong Kong money; they usually carry 
one large sail and are manned by the whole family. One 

141 




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we were in had the father in the stern to guide the boat, 
and two big lusty daughters to hoist the sail and pull on 
oars, also a little daughter, four years old, with an infant 
three months old strapped to her back. We asked the 
father how long this little girl carried the baby; he said all 
day. Usually, the whole family live on the sampan and 
sail it, and there are a great number of them always ready 
to take you in a short time to any place in the harbor. 
The tourist usually goes up the river from Hong Kong, 
one night's run on the river boats, to Canton, a purel}" 
Chinese city of one and a half million population. 

Upon reaching Canton, we were greeted by our 
guides. Ah Kum and one of his sons, who were to take our 
party of seven through the maze of Canton streets. We 
were each seated in a Sedan chair carried by three men; 
the streets were so narrow that we were carried one behind 
the other, with Ah Kum in front, and his son in the rear; 
if we met others in chairs, there was barely room to 
scrape by. 

It is impossible to really give anyone who has never 
been in Canton any idea of this great, teeming population, 
shut up in the little boxes of houses. The streets simply 
look like a comic opera scene in reality, and one feels as if 
really on the stage as a part of the setting. The tiny little 
open shops, with their big, gaudy hangings inscribed with 
Chinese characters, the small round-eyed children who rush 
out when they see the foreigners, to call "Ching Ching" in 
their soft little voices and hold out their hands beseechingl)^ — 
the entire scene was picturesque in the extreme. There is 
nothing to mar the real Orientalism of the place; everything 
is so thoroughly Chinese, that one feels as if one had 
stepped out of the nineteenth century back centuries and 

143 



centuries. In the first few hours, we felt a Httle nervous; 
one hears so many stories of the foreigners who have 
disappeared here, etc., but after going from one narrow 
street to another and watching the faces of the fast moving 
population, this feeling passes away, for the people all seem 
an orderly lot, and either paid no attention to us, or 
greeted us with stares of curiousity, in which no malice is 
mingled. We went to two big temples, one called the 
"Temple of the Five Hundred Gods;" there we saw rows 
and rows of big gilt gods; each person can pick out his 
own particular god to worship. The one that interested 
us most had an abnormally long arm, and when asked the 
reason for it, our guide said, "He was the god that put the 
moon up into the sky, so he needed a long arm." These 
temples are very elaborately decorated with pottery 
moulded into the shape of animals, men, trees and the like; 
these decorations stand out from the wall proper and are 
very ingenious. Another temple was dedicated to the 
ancestors of one family; this family has now thousands of 
members, and as they die, their names are inscribed in 
Chinese characters on a thin strip of wood and placed in 
pockets on the wall. Some places are more expensive than 
others, and it depends on the wealth of the person which 
particular part his name will be in when he dies; in this 
Hall of the Ancestors, there is a big court, around which 
are built numerous rooms, some of which are used for a 
school. 

We visited several shops in the morning, to see the 
painted rice-paper pictures, the old embroideries, the linen 
and ivory, which is all worked in Canton in the small shops 
and houses. Visitors usually eat their lunch in the 
five-story Pagoda, which is on the top of the highest hill, 

145 



but the day before our visit, there had been an explosion 
of gun-powder, which damaged the Pagoda so much that 
we had to eat our lunch in the Governor's picnic garden, 
which is quite a pretty place. 

After lunch, we went to see the "City of the Dead," 
which was so terribly damaged by the explosion; this place 
is a huge building on top of a hill, divided into small 
rooms, built around a court full of plants and flowers; in 
each little room is placed the coffin of some distinguished 
personage. The explosion destroyed the roof, and we had 
to walk around piles of debris, but everything was being 
repaired as quickly as possible. When we asked if any 
people were killed by this explosion, the guide said, "Very 
few, only forty." That is the way they regard life in China. 
We saw the famous water-clock among other things; before 
the present day of clocks, this was the time-keeper for the 
city; there is a huge cask full of water, and a spigot fixed 
to it, through which a drop of water falls every second. 
The bucket into which it falls has a float in it, inscribed 
with Chinese characters, and this indicates the time of day; 
at each hour, an enormous board, on which is written, in 
Chinese, the time, is hung out on the tower so that all the 
people may see it. We were there at twelve o'clock, just 
as they were changing this sign; we felt as if we were back 
in the middle ages. The only disagreeable thing was the 
numerous unpleasant odors we encountered, but, taken as 
a whole, the Chinese in Canton are really very clean; most 
of them have clean faces and bright eyes. The fruit and 
vegetables in the shops were washed clean, and we saw 
pans and pans of little slabs of rice cake. It is an exploded 
theory that the Chinese eat rice onlv. Thev have all sorts 



147 



and kinds of food. They say, "Eat dog to make Chinaman 
strong, eat cat to make him stronger, and eat rat to make 
him strongest." We saw several dogs being boiled, and 
that wasn't very attractive. 

There are, however in Canton, over sixt}^ Protestant 
churches, many of them with regular congregations larger 
than ours, also a fine, large hospital, costing over a hundred 
thousand dollars, where there are over two thousand 
surgical operations every year, and thirty thousand 
applications for medicine per year; also a women's hospital, 
fully equipped, and a hospital for the insane. These 
medical missionaries are acknowledged by all to be a great 
power for good, and have converted great numbers who 
would have been reached in no other way. There is a 
small hotel here, where Europeans or Americans may stop, 
but the best plan is to go up on the river steamers in the 
night, see the city during the day, and come down the next 
night to Hong Kong; you will see all you wish of Canton 
in one day. The river steamers are very good and give 
one good meals going either way, and leaving Canton at 
five p. m. you have a view of the rice fields along the river, 
and many pagodas. Their story is that whenever a 
Chinaman gets enough of this world's goods, he undertakes 
to do good to his fellow men by building a pagoda, and 
builds it as high as his money will go; this has the effect of 
bringing a blessing to his countrymen in that vicinity by 
keeping ofT the insects from their crops. 

In harbor at Hong Kong, a joss boat passed us, gaily 
decked with Chinese flags, colored papers and flowers, they 
fired a few firecrackers, had some Chinese music, and one 
man on the bow of the boat danced. After the dancing 



151 



stopped, another burnt some paper in a small bowl held on 
the end of an iron rod; this is supposed to scare the evil 
spirits away. 

In the Chinese quarter of Hong Kong, where the 
people are very much crowded, one Chinaman was sitting 
with his feet in the stocks, and a placard on his breast, on 
which was written the offense for which he was being 
punished. For minor offenses, this may be more effective 
than our plan of jail sentence, as public opinion evidently is 
a matter of much importance in China, as well as in our 
own country. Then as a punishment for serious offenses, 
they simply cut the head off. While to us that looks like 
a ghastly and uncivilized way of dispatching criminals, 
I am not sure but it has a better effect than our way of 
punishment. *. 

We sailed on the good ship Eastern, May 5th, from 
Hong Kong for Moji, Japan. Sorry that we did not have 
an opportunity to stay longer in Hong Kong, but during 
our short time in China, and our observation of the 
Chinese there and elsewhere, for he is in almost every port 
in this part of the world, we formed a very good opinion 
of John Chinaman. To illustrate: While in Hong Kong, 
a lady of my acquaintance lost her purse, containing sixty- 
five dollars, and, of course, was much distressed about it; 
however, she went back through the shops where she had 
been, and when she came to the place where the purse had 
been left, it was restored to her with entire contents. This 
is mentioned to demonstrate the generally accepted belief 
that Chinamen are honest. Also, he is, as a rule, quiet, 
inoffensive and industrious. He needs the white man to 
direct him, but is ready to do his work cheerfully. 



153 



On our way to Japan, we cruised along the China 
coast for two days and saw thousands of small Chinese 
fishing boats. Sometimes there were three or four hundred 
of these boats in sight at one time, and as much as ten or 
fifteen miles out to sea. Usually there were four men in 
each boat, and the fishing was done with nets; fish are the 
the principal meat they have in China, and there is greater 
demand than supply. 



JAPAN. 

Our first sight of Japan was at Moji, the western 
entrance to the Inland sea, where we anchored in mid- 
harbor for half a day and one night, to take on coal. The 
coal used by steamers here is what we would call slack in 
the United States, but is fairly good for making steam. 
The small boats loaded with coal come alongside, and the 
Jap women load it into the steamer. They use small 
baskets holding about half a bushel each, and form a line, 
passing the baskets from one to the other, keeping a 
continual stream of coal going into the steamer; they 
handle the stuff quickly. 

A Geisha dance having been arranged for us, we went 
ashore at Shimionoseki and took "rickshas" to the daintiest 
little tea-house imaginable. Before entering, we were 
asked to remove our shoes, which we did, and were then 
escorted by pretty tea-girls across the soft straw matting, 
through the house and upstairs, where we were asked to 
sit upon flat cushions which had been placed all around the 
room. The rooms in a Japanese house are divided by 
sliding rice-paper partitions, so that it is a simple matter to 



157 



convert the whole floor into one large room. The outside 
blinds were also pushed aside, disclosing a narrow little 
balcony all around the house, which overlooked a miniature 
garden filled with dwarfed trees, attractive flowers and a 
dainty little waterfall (we afterwards found that this was 
simply a representative tea-house, as there are many of 
them, just as charming, all over Japan). While we were 
looking about, the little tea-girls had been moving noise- 
lessly around, serving their guests. Each person was first 
supplied with a "tabako bon," a tray holding a tiny bowl 
with live coals lying in ashes, and a section of bamboo stem. 
This is used by smokers instead of our commonplace 
matches and ash receivers. Then came the Japanese green 
tea and sweetmeats, made of rice-cake and bean jelly. 
After that, with great ceremony, they passed around the 
"sake" or rice-brandy, which tastes and looks like the 
weakest sherry, although it fills the air with alcoholic 
fumes; the Japanese drink it from shallow little porcelain 
cups that hold barely a tablespoonful. With the "sake" we 
were served with apples and oranges, which the tea-girls 
peeled for each guest. x\fter we had finished eating, the 
musicians and dancers appeared. The musicians sat in a 
row at the back, while the dancers occupied the center of 
the floor. They were all prettily dressed in dark kimonas, 
embroided in gold or light colors, wath brightl}^ colored 
"obies," or sashes. Their blue-black hair was beautifully 
arranged in big loops, like all the Japanese women, and 
decorated with flowers, or colored pins. The Japanese 
women do not wear hats or bonnets; a milliner would starve 
to death there. The Geisha dance is a series of slow, 
gliding movements, changing from one attractive pose to 
another. It is accompanied by wierd, slow airs, played on 

159 



queer Japanese instruments, and a very monotonous song, 
which explains, in Japanese, the meaning of the different 
parts of the dance. These Geishas are professional dancers 
and singers, and necessary to every entertainment. A 
Geisha dances as soon as she is old enough to be taught 
the figures, and to chant the poems which explain them. 
When she begins to fade, she takes her place on the 
mats to play the accompaniment for her seccessors. We 
were much interested in it all, more particularly because 
their ideas of a "dance" were so totally different from what 
we expected to see. When we left, the troop of maidens 
followed us to the entrance, and as we went down the 
street, we heard their sweet sayonaras (farewell) ringing 
after us. 

We were all day winding through the Inland Sea, and 
fortunately had a beautiful day for it. The fame of this 
Inland Sea is world wide, and I do not think it has been 
overdrawn. There are great numbers of islands so closely 
studded together that it requires a special pilot to get 
through safely. They are from one to five hundred feet 
high, with little valleys between the hills, often a little 
village and sloping sandy beach, where numbers of fishing 
boats are drawn up on the pebbly shore. All these islands 
are covered with green verdure, and in every available space 
is a little patch of rice or barley. The cultivated places are 
terraced one above the other, to the tops of the hills. 
In places where the ship's course lay between two high 
hills, the Japs have located forts and planted canon, so that 
the place would be very uncomfortable for an enemy in 
time of war. Along the ridges or tops of these highlands 
are frequently planted a row of trees close together, which 
gives a very artistic appearance to the landscape. There 

i6i 



are some mannfactnring towns scattered among- these islands; 
one has many factories with tall chimneys. On another they 
have a dynamite factory with five large buildings and a tall 
smoke-stack to each, and many small houses for the storage 
of the dynamite; one of these factory towns is devoted to 
smelting copper. The fishing industry is the most 
important of all in these parts, and wherever one turns, 
there are many fishing boats in sight. 

The varied island views were so beautiful that the day 
seemed too short for us, and we regretted to spare the 
time, even to take our meals. We arrived at Yokohama 
on a bright, sunny Sabbath morning, and a beautiful .sight 
met us as we steamed into Yokohama Bay. This bay is 
almost a sea in size, and wdien we arrived it was filled with 
all manner of ships, large and small. Among the lot were 
two of Uncle Sam's battleships, the Colorado and the West 
Virginia, also one French man-of-war, as well as four 
British men-of-war, several large passenger steamers, many 
cargo steamers, some beautiful pleasure yachts standing 
out to sea under full sail, and small craft too numerous to 
count. Also, on land, looking straight away over 
Yokohama, was the giant snow-capped mountain Fujiyama, 
exactly like it looks in the many pictures of it which nearly 
everyone has seen. Standing out boldly against the sky, 
it is, no doubt, the most symmetrical cone shape of any 
large mountain. It is 12,400 feet high and covered with 
snow, except in July and August. A friend was telling us 
of a party that recently started to climb to the top of "Old 
Fuji." They traveled one day on the upward journey, 
when they were caught in a snow storm and compelled to 
camp in the storm for two days, then they were delighted 
to get a chance to come down. In July and August, the 

163 



ascent is made by any good mountain climbers without 
great danger, and a great many natives then do this 
pilgrimage. This mountain looks quite near from the bay, 
but is seventy-five miles from Yokohama. 

This city is the largest shipping port of Japan and has 
over 300,000 population. The Grand Hotel (European), 
where we stopped, is very finely located on the Bund, and 
sitting on the front veranda one has a splendid view of the 
whole harbor. There is a telescope for the use of the 
guests, which enables one to bring the ships so close that 
you can count the men on deck. The rooms are large and 
comfortable, and many have bath rooms, which are the 
first private bath rooms we have seen since leaving the 
United States; also, there are several other good hotels here. 

We were glad to have an opportunity to attend the 
Church of England service, as we had been on the steamer 
nearly five weeks from Sydney. 

I do not consider Yokohama a beautiful city, as the 
streets are only twenty or thirty feet wide, with a few 
exceptions, and the most of the Japanese houses are one 
story frame buildings, although there are several new stone 
blocks recently erected, four or five stories high. Most of 
the streets are kept remarkably clean and frequently swept 
and sprinkled; there are very few horses here; nearly all the 
carriage driving is done in jinrikshas, and the most of the 
trucks for hauling heavy loads are pulled and pushed by 
men; man power is cheap here. The usual fare for the 
"rikshaw" is ten "sen" for a trip, equal to five cents in our 
money. The vehicle is quite comfortable and moves along 
at a good fast trot on the level ground, but cannot make 
much headway going up hills without two men — one to 
pull and one to push. How quickly these Jap rikshaw men 

165 



learn the tricks of our own cabmen; on going ashore, I 
took a rikshaw for the Grand Hotel; the trip was made 
satisfactorily; I asked the rikshaw man how much I owed 
him, and he replied; "fifty sen," which I paid, and learned 
afterwards that the correct fare for the trip was ten sex. 
There are many quaint, pretty places about the city which 
can be readily reached by getting a rikshaw man that can 
speak English, and jogging about at your convenience. 

Yokohama is built mostly on a level plateau, onlv a 
few feet above sea level, but the European and American 
residences are built on the blulT which rises about a 
hundred feet high, just back of the city proper. I have 
seen but one beggar since coming to Japan, and, strange 
as it may seem, he was a poor drunken hobo, and an 
American. The Japs, although most of them are in po\'ertv, 
are energetic and industrious, and do not beg. There is a 
good street car line in Yokohama, but the natives usuallv 
walk, and those who can afford it ride in jinrikshas. 

After a few days in Yokohama, we left for Tokyo, only 
twenty miles north by train; the railway passes through a 
level plain, or \'alley, which is in the highest state of 
cultivation, all under irrigation, much of it planted to wheat 
and barley, which will be ready to harvest about June first. 
There are many other crops of vegetables, and occasionally 
a field of tea plants, which grow about three feet high and 
look like a hardy shrub tree, also a few fields of mulberry 
bushes, to raise leaves which they feed to silk worms; but 
most of the tillable land here is used for growing rice, 
which is just being planted now. The rice fields at present 
ha\e about three inches of water over them, and the 
farmers are digging up the mud, getting the ground in 
readiness to plant. They work all day in the water and 

167 



mud up to their knees, with a long hoe, turning over the 
soil. One would think this rather unhealthy work, but 
these people think it is all right. Notwithstanding the 
large amount of rice grown, the Japanese do not raise 
enough for their home consumption, and annually import 
about 17,000,000 yen in value, of rice. The poorer people 
cannot afford rice as a diet, but use barley, with rice 
occasionally as a luxury. All this plain is cut up by small 
canals for irrigation, and sub-divided into small lots of 
about an acre each, with a little earth bank raised around 
the plots so that they can be flooded when necessary 
without interfering with other fields. 

In this vast plain, we saw no horses or oxen; the men, 
women and children do all the labor, planting, weeding 
and harvesting, without the aid of horsepower, and where 
the ground is a little too high to flood the field, they raise 
the water by man-power pumps. They cannot afford to 
have animals to do such work, as it would cost too much. 
1 have seen women in the mud and water a foot deep, 
hoeing the ground for rice, with babies strapped on their 
backs, and children begin work as soon as they are old 
enough to understand. Wherever there are hills that have 
soil enough to raise anything, they are cultivated clear to 
the top, one terrace above the other, and weeds are not 
permitted to grow at all; they need all the earth will 
produce for crops. It seems strange that they grow 
scarcely any fruit in this part of Japan. Small fruits like 
berries, are plentiful. We had many strawberries, which 
have the finest flavor, but there are no fruit trees at all in 
this part of Japan; no apples, pears, peaches or grapes, and 
while there are thousands of cherry trees, which are noted 
for their beautiful blossoms, they never bear cherries. 

169 



Why this peciiHarity I did not learn, but the chmate in the 
southern part of Japan is fine and many of the hillsides, 
when the soil is too thin to raise grain, would, no doubt, 
bear fine apples, pears, peaches and that class of fruits, and 
as they need all that their land will produce, it seems to me 
that they should do a great amount of fruit raising. Also, 
they have no sheep in Japan, while five-sixths of all their 
country is so mountainous that it cannot be cultivated. 

Tokyo is the most important city; population nearly two 
millions (about as large as Chicago). In the central part 
of the city is the palace of the Mikado; the grounds about 
this palace are very large — I should think one hundred 
acres. There is a rock wall about thirty feet high 
surrounding these grounds, and a moat, or canal, outside 
these walls, about one hundred feet wide, and the water in 
it is about six feet deep. The palace is reached by bridge; 
ordinary mortals are not permitted to visit the palace or 
call on the Mikado without special permit from the proper 
authorities; hence the Mikado did not have an opportunity 
to meet us. 

The House of Commons and Senate Chamber are in 
the central part of the city, and are quite ordinary in 
outside appearance, and rather old buildings, but the 
judicial, navy, army and treasury departments are all fine 
new stone structures, evidently up to date in all respects. 
All these public buildings are near the palace grounds, and 
in this part of the city, which has evidently been rebuilt 
during recent years, the streets are about one hundred feet 
wide, well paved, and look like a modern city. The 
Imperial Hotel is located near these public buildings and is 
the best in Tokvo, although the Metropole Hotel is said to 



171 



be abont as good, and both are managed by the same 
company. 

There is an electric tramway in Tokyo, and it does a 
great business; cars crowded Hke they are in our large 
cities; fare "four sen," equal to two cents, and is a good 
paying investment at that. They are now building an 
elevated tramway through the central part of the city, 
carried on massive brick arches — very expensive to build, 
but this is such a great city that anything of this kind will 
pay a profit. The most of the old part of the city is 
narrow streets twenty to twenty-five feet wide, with one 
story frame houses and open sewers on each side. While 
they keep these streets well swept and sprinkled, yet these 
open sewers have a very bad odor, and I would think 
would be very unhealthy. They sometimes have fires here, 
which destroy vast areas of their tinder-box houses, and 
when this occurs, in rebuilding the streets are laid out 
regular and wide; much of the city has already been 
improved in this way, and the remainder will be when they 
have more fires. 

Tokyo lies on Tokyo Bay and is flat or level; we took a 
carriage to do the city with our guide; this is an extra- 
ordinary thing, as there are very few horses in Tokyo; we 
did not see half a dozen carriages, while in the city. The 
jinriksha is the popular way of traveling here, and it is a 
very good way too; however as we wanted to do a large 
part of the city in a short time, we hired a two-horse 
carriage with a driver and footman, or out-runner; this 
footman was for actual service and not for style. Whenever 
we came to a crowded part of the street, he would run 
ahead and yell to clear the street, and give us important 
personages room, and the good natured Japs would take 

173 



his word for it, and immediately make room for us, so that 
our horses usually went a good trot. 

We visited a flower show, which was good, although 
it was a little late in the season; the Wistaria, however, was 
at its best and very beautiful. We also visited a Shinto 
Temple, a wooden building of not prepossessing appear- 
ance, but gaudily painted, with a small canal in front and a 
sacred (?) bridge over the canal; the bridge being too 
steep for mortals to walk over, we crossed on a small foot 
bridge. 

There were no idols in sight at this temple, but a few 
Japs were occasionally calling and would throw a small coin 
on the matting at the front of the temple. When this was 
done, a boy who stood by the side of the gateway would 
strike a gong loudly. 

The Tokyo Exposition is now going on, and it is a 
very creditable exhibit of the manufactures and artistic 
work of Japan, and well worth a careful inspection. The 
general plan of the buildings and the scope of the exhibits 
is much like the many World's Fairs we have in the United 
States. We made two visits to this show and would have 
been glad to view it more thoroughly if we had time. It 
is a Japanese exhibit and shows only Japanese materials, 
manufactures and products. We saw many very fine water- 
color and cut velvet pictures, all done by Japanese artists. 
They have the usual side show entertainments, including a 
Ferris Wheel over a hundred feet high, and a large theatre, 
where we saw the far-famed "Geisha" dance. The Japanese 
band at this theatre was composed of fifty musicians, and 
their music was much applauded by the large Japanese 
audience, but I think these people are fully two thousand 
years behind the rest of the civilized world in music; at least, 

175 



this was the poorest music I have ever heard, and I have 
heard the Chinese tom-toms and Turkish music. The 
dancing' girls were beautifully dressed in Japanese costumes, 
and while it was not much of a dance, still that part of the 
show was good, as their motions were very graceful and 
pretty. 

The city of Tokyo is a great manufacturing center, and 
has several large factories which work wood and metals, 
but the most of the manufacturing in Tokyo is done by the 
Japanese in their own homes, where the whole family work, 
in fact, the most of the city is occupied by people who are 
doing some kind of work on the first floor and live upstairs. 
Comparatively little machinery is used, everything being 
made by hand. Although this is one of the greatest cities 
of the world, it is a silent city — no factory whistles, no 
ringing of bells, no rattle of wheels on the streets. The 
jinriksha man trots along like a man in his stocking feet, 
or in hauling a loaded cart, moves noiselessly; on waking 
at seven in the morning, the only noise to be heard was 
the cawing of big black crows, or ravens, and there are a 
great many of them in Tokyo. They seem to be quite at 
home and are not molested by the people. 

From Tokyo, we went by rail to Nikko, distance 
eighty-eight miles, time five hours, on express train. The 
railroads here are four foot gauge, and first-class cars have 
the seats lengthwise of the car; this is not as comfortable 
as our plan of seats. The express trains run seventeen 
miles an hour; don't know when we would "get there" on 
the ordinary train. The country is not so fertile as we near 
the mountains, but the hillsides are covered with the most 
beautiful wild azalias in full bloom. Nikko is small, only 
has one well paved street, but that is about two miles long 

177 







'DIABUTSU,' THE GREATEST BUDDHA IDOL. 
(See Our Party in Lower Part of Photo.) 



witli a rushing mountain brook running down the gutter on 
either side. It is situated on a small mountain river, the 
Daiya-gawa, which has water enough in it to make a 
continual roar as it leaps over the boulders. There are a 
great many curio stores along this street, and some 
factories where they are making more curios, also a cotton 
mill run by water power, which employs hve hundred hands. 
There are two good European hotels and a number of 
temples; in fact, the temples are the attraction for the 
tourist, as well as the Japanese visitor, and they are said to 
be the finest in Japan. There is an avenue of cedar trees 
over twenty miles long, leading from the valley up the 
mountain to these temples; these cedars were planted two 
hundred years ago and are the finest specimens of cedar I 
lla^'e ever seen; they average about two feet in diameter, 
and over one hundred feet high. The trees are planted in 
two rows and the branches meet over the well gravelled 
road; they stand quite close together, about six feet apart, 
and are very uniform in size and shape. It is said they 
were planted by one of the Shoguns, who was too poor to 
build a temple; Nature has assisted him, so that his work 
shows better at this time than the best of the temples. 

After lunch, we climbed the mountain about half a mile 
to view these temples. The first we visited was a Buddhist 
temple, called lyayemitich. There are three long flights of 
stone stairs to climb before we reach the temple, which 
could not be called a place of worship after our ideas. 
First, you pass through a gateway, which is guarded by 
two huge statues about ten feet tall, with ferocious faces 
and horns, looking much like the images of His Satanic 
Majesty. These two face us as we approach the gate, and 
two others of the same kind face us after we pass the gate. 

179 



This is the usual style of gateway to all these temples. 
Both outside and inside of this gateway are a great number 
of LAMPS, which have been presented to the temple. There 
are at least three or four hundred of them, about ten feet 
high, lamp and pedestal of the Japanese pattern, most of 
them cut out of solid stone. Many however are made of 
bronze and are artistic. These lamps are placed close 
together and cover a large part of the court; they have been 
there so long that many are covered with moss, and, being 
a rainy country, everything has a damp forest moss if long- 
exposed to the weather. Another long flight of stone steps, 
and we are at the door of the temple, where we take off 
our shoes and put on felt slippers and enter. This remov- 
ing shoes is not a form of reverence for the place, but to 
protect the floor and matting from being soiled or damaged. 
This temple is about sixty feet long and twenty feet wide 
and twenty-five feet high, and empty, except for four 
cylinder-like metal boxes, which are said to contain the 
Scriptures. There is a fee of a few cents for admission, and 
one seedy-looking Jap, called the priest, but I think he was 
the janitor, sat near the door. Just back of this room, and 
a part of the same building, is another room which we 
were not permitted to enter, a kind of Holy of Holies. 
The Buddhist does not preach sermons, and the people do 
not gather in numbers at the temple, but a few sometimes 
kneel before it and "pay their respects" (they do not offer 
prayers) and leave a few copper coins of very little value. 
On leaving the temple, we climbed two very long flights 
of stone steps to view the tomb of the Shogun, leyasu 
leyasu, who built this temple three hundred years ago. 
The monument which marks his resting place is made of 
bronze, about twenty feet high, of a fanciful pattern, some- 

i8i 



thing like a Japanese lamp. The burial place, about fifty 
feet square is paved with tiat stones and enclosed with a 
high stone wall. Just before the gate to this enclosure is a 
small chapel about forty feet long and twenty feet wide, 
cjuite pretty in appearance. This temple and tomb, and, in 
fact, all the temples at Nikko are situated in a forest of 
Cedar trees, which are very high and cast a deep shade 
over the whole place. 

On leaving this we visited a Shinto temple. Here we 
pass a fine pagoda one hundred and four feet high (six 
stories), through a Japanese stone gateway, then another 
gateway, or arch, guarded by devilish looking stone images, 
both inside and outside the gate, and take off shoes as 
before. At this temple, there were nearly a dozen Japanese 
kneeling, "paying their respects," and leaving a few copper 
coins. This room was about forty feet long and twenty 
feet wide; the walls were decorated with wood carving, and 
floor covered with straw matting. At one end was a small 
waiting room, where the Mikado rests when he comes to 
the temple. There was a similar room behind the first 
where we were not permitted to go. Our guide told us 
there were three images, or idols in this room; we saw no 
images or idols in any of the temples. There are two 
buildings near this temple, same style of architecture and 
appearance as .the temple, which are used by people who 
care for the grounds and temple, as their living rooms, and 
another small building, same style, where a Japanese woman 
dances the "sacred dance" if one gives her a small coin. 
The dance consisted of a slow and graceful movement 
of the arms and body, and the tinkling of a small baby 
rattle with one hand, and waving a fan with the other — not 



183 




TEA HOUSE, TOKYO. 



much of a dance and not worth the money. Another 
temple was visited, but was similar to the Shinto Temple 
just described. 

All these temples are gaudily painted in red and gold 
lacquer. This painting stands the weather extraordinarily 
well; while they are repainted every two years, they look 
as fresh now as if the paint was applied yesterday. Such 
bright colors make them a dazzling show when one first 
beholds them. Also the sacred Red Bridge which spans 
Diaya-gawa River at Nikko is painted in the same dazzling 
colors; this sacred bridge is closed to the public except 
twice a year, when pilgrims to the temples are allowed to 
cross it. About one hundred feet down stream is the 
temporary bridge, which common people use every day — 
a very good bridge, too, but does not shine with paint like 
the red and gold-lacquered sacred bridge. 

The town of Nikko is very prettily situated in the 
mountains, two thousand feet above sea level. The air is 
fresh and invigorating; there are many country homes here, 
and in this vicinity, where the officials and wealthy Japanese 
of Tokyo come to spend the heated term. A mile up the 
river, on a stone wall built along the river bank, we saw 
three hundred stone images, all alike, being the bust or 
image of Buddha in a sitting posture; they are five feet 
high and placed ten feet apart, made and placed there by 
one of the Shoguns about three hundred years ago, "in 
honor of the temples" — a rather queer way to honor the 
temples. Some of them have had their heads broken ofif, 
and a few have tumbled over into the river. I asked the 
guide who kept these temples so well painted, and who paid 
the priests who attended them. He replied that it was 



185 



done by the town. This is done to keep the tourist and 
Japanese pilgrims coming to Nikko. It is one of the show 
places of Japan, and they have to keep things bright and 
in repair to draw the crowd. 

After a good night's rest and a hearty breakfast, we 
set off for a trip up the Valley of Daiya-gawa to Lake 
Chuzenji. Each member of our party took a sedan chair, 
which was carried on bamboo poles on the shoulders of 
four stalwart Japanese coolies, our guide taking a jinriksha 
with one man to pull and two to push, our party requiring 
fifteen men to take us up. They wear very little 
clothing, these Japanese coolies — a cotton shirt and cotton 
pants, so short that their legs and feet are bare. These 
sturdy fellows worked all day, and hard work, too, carrying 
us up to the lake ten miles and back for thirty-seven and a 
half cents each. I mention this to show the very small 
wages paid in Japan; we gave them each a tip in addition. 
The road is very rough and steep, and rises twenty-five 
hundred feet in going the ten miles. These fellows, who 
subsist on barley, with a little rice as a luxury, sometimes a 
little fish (as they are one hundred miles from the sea), 
very seldom any meat, have good strong muscle and did 
their work cheerfully, laughing and chatting between 
themselves most of the time. They were delighted to have 
such a good job. 

This Daiya-gawa valley above Nikko is impassible in 
winter, on account of the heavy snows, which blockade the 
narrow roadway. When winter comes, everybody deserts 
these mountains and goes down the valley where it is 
warmer. The coming of Spring and the tourist brings the 
natives back to open up their tea-houses, carry sedan 
chairs and pull jinrikshas. The Aisho copper mines in 

187 




< 

< 
ai 
W 

c 

O 

a 

O 



these mountains are the most productive in Japan; their 
output is 7000 tons smelted copper per year; they have 
built a small tramway two feet wide down the valley, and 
use oxen to haul the small cars on this track, bringing the 
copper ingots, each weighing sixty-eight pounds, down to 
Nikko for shipment, and hauling supplies back. 

The trip up this valley is one of the finest for beautiful 
scenery it has been my pleasure to see; it reminds me very 
much of the valleys between the Alps in Switzerland. 
While not so wide and covered with rough rock, yet the 
continuous mountais peaks on either side, and the ever- 
present rushing, roaring stream of water, is much like the 
Swiss beautiful. Most of the distance, we wound along a 
road near the stream, crossing it several times, passing 
many pretty tea-houses on the way, where refreshment is 
waiting for the traveler. When half way up, we stopped and 
took tea and gave our hard-working chair carriers a short 
rest, in fact, we were many times compelled to walk awhile 
to get rested, as the sedan chair is not easy riding; it is 
very much like riding a hard trotting horse. After a good 
hard pull of three and a half hours, we reached the beautiful 
Chuzenji Lake, size, three miles by eight miles, and it is 
beautiful, very much like the Italian lakes, nestled between 
the tops of mountains at an elevation of four thousand five 
hundred feet above sea level. Although quite warm 
weather in the valleys, an overcoat was very comfortable 
here; we were close to the snow capped mountain Nantaipen, 
nine thousand feet, which made the air exhilarating. We 
were hungry enough to enjoy the good lunch which was 
ready for us at the Lake hotel. Some tourists stop here a 
week, as the air is fine at this season, and the scenery 
grand. We had no time for a long stay and were off again 

189 




WISTARIA GARDEN, TOKYO. 



soon after lunch, for our return, going by way of the fahs, 
where the lake waters start on their tumultuous and noisy 
way over the rocks, down to the sea. We made the return 
trip in three hours and felt that we had done a big day's 
work, seeing the most beautiful scenery in this beautiful 
scenic land. 

Our next visit was to the town of Miyanoshita, said to 
be the most popular summer resort in Japan. We took the 
URGENT EXPRESS TRAIN for Koclzu; tliis is the best railway 
train in Japan, the track is good and but few stops are made. 
It is the through train from Tokyo to Kobe, and makes the 
unprecedented time of twenty miles an hour; an extra fare 
of one yen is charged to ride first class on this train. 
There were several "high up" Japanese on the car with us; 
I noticed that the one sitting next to me was riding on a 
pass, while a plebeian like myself paid full fare and one yen 
extra. This pass has, no doubt, been issued to influence 
trade. Where is the Japanese Interstate Commerce 
Commission? The seats in this car run lengthwise, and it 
is used as a sleeping car on night trains, having a drawing 
room compartment in the middle, which was occupied by 
Chinese Mandarins; very good looking fellows they were, too. 

From Kodzu, we took an electric tram car about ten 
miles up the mountain to Yumoto. On the way we had a 
very good view of the great snow capped mountain, 
Fujiyama, fifty miles distant. From Yumoto, we climbed 
the mountain in rikshas, four and a half miles; this part of 
the trip is very scenic and grand; the road for the most 
part was up a small valley, beside a rushing river, which we 
crossed several times, all the time climbing. In many 
places the road is cut into the rocky side of the mountain 
and overhangs the valley, several hundred feet below. We 

193 



had one man to pull and one to push; the}^ carried lis up to 
Hotel Fujiya in two hours. It was good hard climbing all 
the way, and most of the road rocky and rough. We 
arrived in time for lunch and were greatly pleased with the 
place; the hotel is, no doubt, the best mountain hotel in 
Japan and would be considered first-class in the United 
States. It is kept by a Japanese lady who knows how to 
keep a hotel, and the location is a delight to the eye. The 
air is a tonic to the system, the rooms are the most 
pleasant we have had since leaving home, and the meals are 
good. The elevation is fourteen hundred feet, with 
mountains in all directions a thousand feet higher. There 
are many hot springs in this vicinity; the hot water for the 
baths here is brought from these springs in pipes made of 
bamboo poles. Punch the pith out, and these poles make 
a good strong water pipe. As our time in Japan was 
limited, we were compelled to leave for Yokohama after 
one day at this delightful place; we would have been glad 
to spend a week here. 

One day, we made a trip from Yokohama to Kamakura, 
a few miles by rail. The first thing we saw there was the 
temple of war, "Hachiman;" this is reached by jinriksha in 
a few minutes from the station, passing through the main 
street of the city. The approach of this temple is up three 
broad flights of steps, very high. In going up, we saw the 
"Icho" tree, very large, about seven feet in diameter, and a 
hundred feet high, said to be a thousand years old; it is 
still vigorous and seems to be good for another thousand 
years. The temple is seven hundred years old and has a 
corridor running all the way around it, in which are placed 
many of the war curios, such as coats of armor, spears, 
shields, guns, several miniature temples, which look much 

195 



like the Ark of the Covenant which the Israehtes had in 
ancient times; they may have been patterned after it. 
These are carried on bamboo poles by four men during pro- 
cessions, and are popularly supposed to contain a god. 
We did not enter this temple, as it was closed on account 
of a holiday (we simply walked through the corridor), but 
it seemes to be much in need of repairs and paint. Then 
we went about a mile through the city to see the well 
known image of Daibutsu; this colossal bronze statue, or 
Buddha idol, is situated in an open garden; originally 
there was a temple built over it, and the stone foundations 
are in view now, but the temple was swept away by a tidal 
wave, and rebuilt, to be again swept away, and has since 
been exposed to the sun and storms for centuries. The 
statue is located only a little above sea level and about a 
mile from the sea; it is the greatest of the idols in Japan, 
and the photograph of it is well known to all readers of 
Japanese history — "A statue solid set and moulded in 
colossal calm, no other gives such an impression of 
majesty, or so truly symbolizes the central idea of 
Buddhism." It is, indeed, a remarkable statue, being forty- 
nine feet seven inches high; made of bronze plates two 
inches thick and solidly welded together, it has withstood 
the waves, wind, and weather for six hundred and fifty-five 
years, and looks like it would stand the wear of a thousand 
years to come. The exclusive privilege to take photographs 
of these statues and temples has been sold to the Japanese 
attendants; therefore, we could not use our kodak here, but 
got the attendant, or priest, to take a photograph for us; 
he is prepared with a good camera for that purpose. We 
went inside the statue and climbed a small stairway to the 
top, where they keep candles burning, at least during the 

197 



hours when visitors are expectecL These attendants have 
no more respect for this god than we have, and that is none 
at all, and really, from my short observations, I do not 
think the Japanese people have much, if any, respect for any 
of these so-called gods, or idols. They keep an attendant, 
called a priest (I call him a "care-taker") at the temples, 
but they are more to protect the temples and idols from 
being marred or damaged by visitors than for any purpose 
of worship, and at the same time collect a small fee from 
sight-seers. Many names are written on the inside of 
Daibutsu by enterprising tourists who like to see their 
names written in high places. 

The Temple of Ewanon is located on a small hill a 
short distance from Daibutsu. It contains the great image 
of the "Goddess of Mercy," which is kept behind folding- 
doors. By paying the attendant a small fee, he opened the 
doors and lit up tallow candles for us to see the Goddess. 
She is thirty feet, five and one-half inches tall, is made of 
camphor wood covered with brown lacquer, and gilded 
over — looks like bronze. Although 1178 years of age, 
time has dealt gently with her, and she still has a placid, 
pleasant look for all who will pay for the candle to see her 
face. 

After a good lunch and rest for an hour at the hotel, 
we again took our rikshas for a pleasant ride of half an 
hour through the hills to the sea-shore electric tram, which 
runs around by the beautiful summer resort, Enoshima 
Island, which is connected to the mainland by trestle 
bridge. It is one hundred feet above the sea, with rocky 
bluffs on all sides, except towards the mainland and is 
covered with summer homes of Japanese, also a good hotel 
for tourists. 

199 



One night, while in Yokohama, we went out to view 
the Japanese HoHday FestivaL These festivals occur on 
the first, fifteenth, eighth and twelfth of each month, and 
are observed by decorating their homes and store-fronts 
with Japanese lanterns, by social visiting, and by the shops 
in greater display of goods inside, and on streets, for there 
are no sidewalks in Japan, We walked at least a mile 
through the street, densely packed wath a moving mass of 
laughing, chatting, good-natured Japs — men, women and 
children — some pegging along with wooden sandals raised 
on strips of wood about three inches high, making a 
rattling noise against the pebbles as they shuffled their 
sandals, many others walking silently with straw sandals, 
their costumes varying greatly, some wearing the full 
Oriental Japanese dress, and others wearing American style 
clothing. Many divide it and wear an American hat and 
coat, with bare legs, and feet with Japanese sandals. Others 
wear American shoes and hat, with Japanese kimono. Any 
mixture, or lack of mixture, in dress is in order. I think 
this manner of dress illustrates the transition now going on 
from old to new customs as well as costumes. Their small 
shops have the fronts entirely open; the floors are raised 
about two feet above the street and covered w4th soft straw 
matting. The shop-keepers who handle cloth and clothing 
usually have no goods in sight, but bring them to you by 
the basketful if you express a wish as to what kind of 
goods you desire to see. Others have many goods piled 
on the floors; you may sit on the floor, and they will spread 
their goods before you, but most of their wares are the 
little things, such as toys, small Japanese fiddles, with one 
or two strings, a large variety of knives, fanc}- shells, men's 
hats, hemp cordage, lamps, canes, rice, beans, cigars, 

201 



cigarettes, and a great variety of china and crockery ware, 
Japanese cooking utensils, such as copper pans, charcoal 
brasiers, in fact, almost no end of variety in small wares. 
Many articles are laid on the street for inspection. So 
many Japanese lamps make everything as light as day; the 
festival seems to be the great opportunity to display and 
sell goods. No one will ask you to buy unless you stop 
and ask the price. These small shops are often attended by 
an old woman, young girl or boy, very few of whom can 
speak English, but all are anxious to learn it. It was cer- 
tainly an interesting sight to walk up and down this crowded 
street. Near the end of the street was a Shinto temple, 
lit up with candles and paper lanterns; we climbed a flight of 
steps to the second story, which was the main part of the 
temple. There was no idol in sight, but there was a Jap 
boy with a gong and drum-stick. Whenever anyone tossed 
a coin on the straw matting before the temple, the boy 
would strike the gong a heavy whack with the drum-stick. 
This is said to call the notice of the Shinto god to the 
donation; otherwise he might not know who deposited the 
coin; it also serves notice to the people on the crowded 
street that it is time for them to make similar donations. 
The temple service did not seem to be popular that night, 
as there were not more than half a dozen persons present. 
We took a carriage ride out to Mississippi Bay one 
afternoon. This is a southern suburb of Yokohama, and 
about three miles distant from the central part of the city. 
The road most of the way lies along the big canal, with 
stores, workshops and residences on one side. The Bay 
was named by our Commodore Perry when he visited here 
and opened the port. On the way, there were a great 
number of canal boats, or large sampans, loaded with 

203 



merchandise and building material, or empty. These boats 
are pushed along with poles and are very convenient for 
distributing materials along the canal, which is too shallow 
for steamers or sailing boats. At the bay, we had tea, cakes 
and candy in a Japanese tea house, cpite refreshing, after a 
ride that was so long we thought we were lost before 
reaching destination. Coming back, we took a round-about 
road alongside the Bay and up a valley, which is in the 
highest state of cultivation in wheat and barley, nearly ready 
for harvest, and a very large crop will be gathered, Much 
of the ground is being dug up, preparing it for rice 
planting. Part of our return trip was over the blulT, and 
here are most of the beautiful homes of the foreign residents 
of the city, built in European style, with fine landscape 
gardens. 

At Tokyo, the temperature ranges from 22 to 95 
degrees, and the annual rainfall from 50 to 70 inches; as 
five-sixths of the land over the whole empire is moun- 
tainous, the rainfall is over-abundant nearly everywhere. 
In the northern portions, the snow is heavy in winter, and 
weather very cold, while the southern portion has a mild 
climate, yet it is hardly warm enough to be called semi- 
tropical, although they raise some oranges. The Japanese 
houses are very tiny and flimsy; usually bamboo poles are 
set on stone foundations and tied with bamboo poles 
crosswise, making a frame; the walls are thin weatherboards, 
except the front and doors; these are bamboo frames 
covered with tough white rice paper, set in grooves, so that 
they slide sideways very readily. The roof of their best 
houses is tile, and it is very heavy for so slight framework. 
The poorest houses in the cities, and nearly all in the 
country, are roofed with thatched straw, very heavily and 

205 



thickly thatched, so that it turns the water very weh. No 
paint is used on these houses, either outside or inside, and, 
in consequence, they present a worn-out and dilapidated 
appearance, but their lumber seems to stand the weather 
fairly well without paint. They use almost no furniture at 
all; their floors are covered with straw matting, made in 
sections, six feet long, three feet wide, and two inches 
thick, and bound with cloth around the edges. Their beds 
are simply a heavy cotton-wadded comfort laid on the 
matting floor, with another cotton-wadded comfort for a 
cover. With such slight houses and such poor bedding, 
they must become inured to the cold weather in winter, as 
the only fire they have is a little charcoal in an open brasier, 
and over it they do their cooking. They have no chairs or 
tables, but sit on their legs. Their houses catch fire and 
burn very quickly, and, when built closely in cities, 
conflagrations are frequent; however, if they have a little 
notice, they can load all their clothing and furniture on one 
two-wheeled cart, which they usually keep for moving heavy 
articles, and get away before the fire reaches them, so that 
a fire may, and often does, sweep over large portions of 
their cities without causing great loss, and is rebuilt in a 
very short time. 

Their religion is Buddhist and Shinto. There are many 
temples of both kinds. The Shinto is the Mikado's faith 
and may be called the state religion. They do not seem 
to be a religious people, and care very little for their 
temples or gods, and seem to have but little regard for 
anything religious. Missionaries from all parts of the 
world are represented here, and from their reports are 
making many converts. These people are very anxious to 
learn the English language, and Mission schools, taught in 

206 



English, should result in great good and eventually 
Christianize the nation. While the number already 
converted to Christianity may be considered large, yet, 
compared with the total number of the people, the 
percentage of the converted is small, and the missionary 
work here has really only just begun. We should not 
delay, but put as many Christian teachers as possible in 
this field, while the opportunity ofTers for results. 

There are forty-eight letters in the Japanese alphabet, 
and, in addition, they use over two thousand Chinese 
characters, which stand for words. They use the "soroban" 
for all mathematical calculations; it is simply a frame with 
wires running across it, and buttons sliding on the wires — 
really a Chinese commutator, adopted by the Japanese; it is 
much more simple than our high-priced patented com- 
putating machines, and for many commercial calculations 
is operated quite as rapidly. 

The Government has no free public schools; pupils are 
required to pay tuition; children are put to work very 
young, and education is not as general as it should be for 
above reasons. The English language is taught in all 
their schools, but being mostly taught by Japanese teachers, 
the pupils do not learn the accent and cannot speak 
English, except quite indifferently. It is like our children 
learning French or German from American teachers; they 
do not learn to pronounce foreign languages correctly. 

Bamboo is the most useful wood in Japan; it is useful 
from the size of a cane to the size of a large flag pole fifty 
feet long; they make toothpicks, canes, waterpipes, sun- 
shades, umbrellas, house frames, baskets, chairs, poles for 
pushing boats and carrying chairs, fences and many other 
things. Rice, tea, barley and wheat are largely cultivated; 

207 



silk culture is an important industry; fishing is carried on 
largely on all coasts, and the natives eat scarcely any meat, 
except fish. 

The people are small, all their houses are small, many 
of their manufactured goods are small wares; we get the 
impression that they are a toy nation. Their railroads are 
narrow gauge, only four feet, engines and cars built narrow 
in proportion. Yet, if we think they are small in their 
ideas, we are mistaken, as they have demonstrated that they 
are among the great fighting nations of the earth, and 
certainly there are no more brave men in battle, either on 
land or sea. Their recent success in the Chinese war, and 
the Russian war, has made them of much more importance 
in their own estimation, as well as in the estimation of all 
the great world powers, and when fighting is to be done 
on the Pacific, they must be considered. They are 
increasing their navy and their army, also greatly increasing 
their merchant marine, paying large subsidies to mail 
steamship lines in all parts of the Pacific. All these 
things have a tendency to increase their national debt, 
which is already very large, and their income from customs 
duties, and internal revenue, must of necessity be moderate, 
so that I do not think there is much danger of the Japanese 
indulging in war for many years to come. There are forty- 
eight millions of them now, and as the marriageable age of 
their daughters is fifteen years, they are increasing at a 
rate never dreamed of by our "race suicide" people. They 
are destined to become the great manufacturing nation of 
the Orient, being ingenious imitators of other nations, very 
artistic in their workmanship in copper, bronze, silver, gold, 
wood and ivory carving, also in silk goods and embroidery. 
The cost of labor is about one-fourth what it is in our 

208 



country; they are rapidly increasing their factories for the 
manufacture of cotton goods, and now import many 
milHon dollars worth of raw cotton annually from the 
United States. 

We saw only two oxen and about a dozen horses in 
Japan. The common people have no domestic animals at 
all — no horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats or geese, and very 
few chickens. They are too poor to eat meat, and they do 
all their labor without the aid of animals; there are no 
Sundays for these people; the usual work goes on just the 
same Sunday as any other day of the week. There are, 
however, many festival days, or holidays, on which they do 
not work; as banks and foreign offices are closed on Sunday, 
the Japanese government also close their offices on Sunday. 
While this is not done because of any respect for the day, 
it will, no doubt, in time, have efifect for good. 

Let the Christian world make haste to convert this 
nation. Under Divine guidance, with their aggressive spirit, 
they would be the greatest missionary force the earth has 
yet produced for Christianizing the untold millions of the 
far East. 

As we sailed out of Yokohama, May 24th, for home, on 
the good ship, Minnesota, the masts of her sister ship, the 
Dakota, could be seen at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, where 
she was wrecked on March 3rd, 1907. We have some of 
her passengers on board with us now; they tell a sad story 
of how this palatial steamer, one of the finest and best ever 
built, valued at three million dollars, carrying a valuable 
cargo of over 20,000 tons, was run upon the rocks in broad 
daylight, in a calm sea. Passengers and crew were all 
saved, but ship and cargo, a total loss. Such inexcusable 



209 



carelessness, neglect or incompetence on the part of the 
commander of this ship has not before been known on 
the sea. 

After a short voyage of fifteen days on the Minnesota, 
we landed at Seattle, Washington, and I must say for the 
Minnesota that she is the steadiest steamer we have ever 
had the pleasure to sail on — six hundred and thirty feet 
long, and seventy-eight feet beam, with all three first-class 
passenger decks built above the main deck, good large 
state rooms, with three promenade decks, the top prome- 
nade deck very wide. It is a delight to sail on this palatial 
steamer. 

HOME, SWEET HOME. 

We have now completed a most pleasant voyage of 
four months since we sailed from Frisco on February 7th 
and landed at Seattle on June 7th. In going out, we 
dropped one day in February, so that we had a month of 
only twenty-seven days, and, on our return we added one 
day in May, making it a month of thirty-two days — the 
longest and shortest months that anyone ever saw. We 
have, during these four months, sailed about twenty 
thousand miles, practically all around the Pacific, and it has 
been a voyage of great benefit to us all. We have learned 
much about the earth and its inhabitants — the most 
interesting and educational trip that anyone could have in 
four months' time, and now we are home with renewed 
health and strength to again take up the battle in the 
commercial world. While we have visited countries where 
the climate is better than ours, and other countries where 
one can live, or rather exist, with less exertion than here, 

210 



other countries where the scenery was a delight to the eye, 
and the air a tonic to the lungs — still, in all these foreign 
countries, there are many things that are not nearly as good 
as in our own United States, and while many times we do 
much complaining that our own country is not as it should 
be in every respect, still I am sure that any fair-minded 
American who travels the world over, will come back to his 
own country satisfied that it is, beyond all doubt, the best 
country that the sun shines upon. 

"My Country, 'tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty, 
Of thee I sing". 

Long- may our land be bright 
With Freedom's holy light, 

Protect us by Thy might. 
Great God, our King-." 



211 



HARDMAIM PRESS, 
ST. JOSEPH, MO. 



yEC 03 1907 



